Michael Ring
Ceist:109 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will approve a line for Irish operational non-governmental organisations in the budget to ensure a meaningful grant on an annual basis to them. [6174/00]
Written Answers. - Departmental Funding.
Ireland Aid has a valuable and long-standing partnership relationship with Irish NGOs active in development and humanitarian relief assistance. Last year's OECD review of Ireland Aid confirmed that our funding through NGOs is high by international standards.
Support for development activities carried out by NGOs may be funded under a number of headings within the bilateral aid programme including the NGO co-financing scheme, the human rights and democratisation scheme, and the emergency relief and rehabilitation assistance scheme. Funding arrangements are related to the purpose of the various spending programmes and not the nature of the recipient organisations. Funding is intended to support activities rather than organisations.
In recognition of their capacity and track record, five of the largest Irish NGOs – Concern, Trócaire, GOAL, Self Help Development International and Christian Aid – receive an annual block grant from Ireland Aid for development projects. This provides both recipients and Ireland Aid greater administrative flexibility and allows block grant recipients freedom to select projects within agreed criteria. My Department is currently in discussions with these NGOs concerning putting these arrangements on a multi-annual basis.
I am satisfied that the current arrangements in respect of Ireland Aid – NGO collaboration are working well. I believe that no practical purpose would be served by having a separate NGO budget line, as it would still be necessary to apply existing criteria to funding applications for different activities.
Details of all funding to NGOs are contained in the Irish Aid annual reports, copies of which are available in the Dáil Library.