: I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £291,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1980, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and of certain services administered by that Office, including certain grants-in-aid.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle I would propose to discuss the Supplementary Estimates for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation together.
The Supplementary Estimate for Foreign Affairs is required to meet additional expenditure on five subheads of the Vote — travel and incidental expenses, Post Office services, repatriation and maintenance of Irish citizens abroad, cultural relations with other countries and contributions to bodies in Ireland for the furtherance of international relations. The total of the additional sums required, £885,000 is partly offset by savings elsewhere in the Vote amounting to £320,000 and by an anticipated increase of £274,000 in appropriations-in-aid. The net additional sum required for the five subheads is, therefore, £291,000.
The increase required for travel and incidental expenses arises for a number of reasons which could not be adequately foreseen when the original provision was agreed. In addition to travelling costs this subhead also provides for communications expenses for our missions abroad. The cost of these services is constantly on the increase and this is a factor over which my Department can exercise no control. I am of course fully aware of the necessity to exercise maximum economies in the expenditure areas covered by this subhead but my Department must meet their unavoidable commitments in terms of mandatory attendance at meetings and of providing necessary facilities in missions abroad including new missions. The additional sum now sought is the minimum required to enable these commitments to be adequately met for the remainder of the current financial year.
The additional £100,000 required for Post Office services is for the most part due to the delay in the receipt of accounts because of the postal strike last year.
It is difficult to estimate accurately the provision required for repatriation and maintenance of distressed Irish citizens abroad. On the basis of the expenditure so far this year it is expected that an additional £9,000 will be required to meet the demands of this subhead. Much of the moneys advanced from this subhead are recovered and this is reflected in increased receipts in appropriations-in-aid.
The additional sum proposed for subhead E, cultural relations with other countries, is required for the winding-up of the affairs of "A Sense of Ireland", the Festival of the Arts of Ireland which took place in London in February and March this year. Deputies will, I think, agree that this festival was very successful, comprising as it did over 90 exhibitions and performances of music, theatre, ballet, films, lectures and seminars by participants from all over Ireland at over 40 London venues. Contributions towards the festival were forthcoming from bodies and individuals in both Ireland and Britain. The festival was enthusiastically endorsed by the Government and can be said to have played a significant part in promoting Anglo-Irish relations. It will be appreciated that it was difficult for the organisers to anticipate accurately exact costings of a festival of this magnitude and the further sum now sought is to cover such unforeseen costs.
The £1,000 required for subhead G is to enable payment of the grant of £1,000 for 1980 to be paid to the Irish United Nations Association. Because of accounting requirements it was not possible for my Department to pay the 1979 grant of £1,000 last year and it is therefore necessary to make two payments in the current year. The contribution to the association continues to be at the level of £1,000 per annum.
The total of the sums required for the five subheads will, as I have said, be offset to some extent by a saving in subhead A — salaries. This saving arises in the main because of vacancies which were unavoidably left unfilled for a large portion of the current year. It was not possible to forecast at the beginning of the year with any degree of accuracy where or to what extent vacancies would arise in missions abroad.
The expenditure excesses are also partly offset by an anticipated increase in appropriations-in-aid. Receipts have been greater than provided for because of the increase in the rates of the passport and other consular fees which came into effect at the beginning of June this year and also because of a heavier demand on these services.
With regard to the Supplementary Estimate for the Vote for International Co-operation, Deputies will see that this is for a token sum of £10 to enable transfers to be made between subheads within the original provision for this Vote. The approval of the Dáil is required before expenditure from grant-in-aid subheads can be made in excess of the amounts originally provided.
Subhead G of the Vote for International Co-operation for 1980 concerns payments for the benefit of developing countries arising from our membership of the European Economic Community. In the 1980 Estimate, £3,733,500 was provided for the purpose of meeting Ireland's contribution to the Fourth and Fifth European Development Funds, established under the Lomé Convention, and to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), in addition to providing for any contingencies in the matter of exchange rate fluctuations which might arise in the course of the year.
In the event, Ireland's contribution to the Fourth EDF in 1980, as revised by the European Commission in the course of the year, amounted to £2,172,337 which is £427,663 less than anticipated. The Second Convention of Lomé has not yet entered into force and consequently there will be no call-up of the Fifth EDF funds in 1980. The allocation of £643,000 for the Fifth EDF will, therefore, not be called upon. Negotiations on the replenishment of IFAD — the International Fund for Agricultural Development — established in 1977, have been taking place during the year, but progress has been slower than expected. At this stage, it seems likely that the remaining issues will in fact be settled before the end of the year, but payments to IFAD II will not become due until 1981. There is, therefore, an additional saving of £190,000 this year on subhead G, which, together with savings on the contingency provision, amount in all to an estimated unexpended balance of £1,511,000.
I propose that £100,000 of this amount be transferred to subhead D, disaster relief, in order that I may be able to respond to appeals for emergency assistance between now and the end of the year. I propose that a further £100,000 be transferred to subhead C for the Agency for Personal Service Overseas (APSO). APSO enables individuals who have skills and experience to offer to travel to countries of the Third World and to participate in the development of these countries. The additional amount now being made available to the agency will enable them to meet all their commitments in relation to personnel overseas and to discharge their responsibilities. I also propose that £159,000 be transferred to subhead B, contributions to UN voluntary agencies, to constitute an additional contribution to the UN Development Programme (UNDP), which is the main UN Agency for Technical Co-operation, and as such, has a very high standing in both developed and developing countries.
Finally I propose that the balance, amounting to £1,202,000, be transferred to subhead E. This subhead covers payments to the grant-in-aid fund for bilateral and other aid contributions to developing countries, for which a sum of £2,275,000 has been provided in the original estimate. The additional amount will be used to meet our existing commitments to the bilateral aid programme this year.
In our bilateral aid programme we have sought to put into practice the principles and policies which guide our approach to development co-operation and, in addition, to complement our contribution to development through the various multilateral agencies. The programme which was initiated in 1973 is still at a very early stage in its development. Nevertheless, in a few short years we have laid the foundation for a comprehensive programme of co-operation. In formulating our bilateral aid programme we have been guided by the experience of other countries which have been active in this field longer than ourselves. We have also sought to use the resources and expertise which we acquired in the course of our own development together with the tremendous enthusiasm and generosity which has always characterised the approach of Irish people to the Third World.
We recognise that real and sustained development requires the building up of Third World countries from within. In the long-term it is the people of the Third, World themselves who must assure their own development. What we can do is to provide the technical assistance these countries require. For this reason we have given an absolute priority in our bilateral aid programme to the provision of technical assistance. We are conscious also of the overriding need to assist the least developed countries. We realise too clearly that in terms of the vast needs that exist in the Third World the quantity of assistance which we can provide could never amount to more than a drop in the ocean. We hope, however, that if we can in some way help to encourage and motivate these people to help themselves then our efforts will be worthwhile.
I have mentioned earlier in the year the establishment of the Advisory Council on Development Co-operation. The council has already begun to pursue its task actively and I am confident that its advice to the Government will be of valuable help in the future.