I thank the Chairman for his kind welcome and positive remarks. It is important that I report, first and foremost, to the joint committee and then return to it before we complete our work and draft the White Paper. The Department would welcome a formal contribution or submission from the joint committee to influence our work on the White Paper. I am grateful to members for inviting me to speak about the proposed White Paper. The committee plays a vital role in the development and evolution of foreign policy. As Minister of State with responsibility for development co-operation, I welcome the opportunity to offer it a picture of the work in which Development Co-operation Ireland is engaged and our plans for the White Paper.
The Irish public showed extraordinary compassion and generosity following the Asian tsunami disaster. Many people have also engaged in the discussion on Ireland's commitment to meet the United Nations target figure of 0.7% of GNP for development assistance. This may give an impression that the public as a whole is engaged and familiar with the work of Development Co-operation Ireland. However, since my appointment as Minister of State, I have become conscious that much of the work we do on overseas development remains unseen by the public. In the meantime, our spending on development co-operation continues to increase. In the not too distant future we face the prospect of being allocated an annual development budget exceeding €1 billion. In these circumstances, it is essential that the public is better informed of how we spend such large sums of its money.
We in Development Co-operation Ireland do not have a monopoly on the best ideas. We alone do not know how to ensure that the best value is obtained for taxpayers' money. We have reports which praise our programme. In 2003, the OECD described it as being at the cutting edge of best development practice. My own assessment is that we have done very well thus far but can do better. We are leaders not laggards in development co-operation. I make those remarks deliberately, particularly in light of recent comments, on which this morning's newspapers commented, directed at the Canadian Prime Minister by Bono.
On a per capita basis, Ireland is the ninth largest donor in the world and we wish to remain world leaders by achieving the 0.7% of GNP target within a reasonable timeframe. I have stressed since taking office that we need to adopt a target which is both realistic and achievable rather than unrealistic and unobtainable.
The process of preparing a White Paper acknowledges that we are open to adopting new ideas. We recognise that others in society, even those without any previous involvement in development, can make a useful and innovative contribution to this process, which also affords an opportunity to inform the public of what Development Co-operation Ireland is and does in the developing world on behalf of the public. I am holding a series of public meetings throughout the country at which ordinary citizens may make contributions. Wherever these take place, I am also arranging to meet local opinion formers and persons of influence from the community, including trade union leaders, members of the clergy, employers, representatives of farming communities and heads of academic institutions.
At national level, I am particularly pleased to be able to meet with this committee. Its members are in a special position of guiding and informing public opinion. It would be inconceivable to embark upon this process without meeting the committee and hearing its views. I am grateful that it has found time to invite me here while we are still at the early stage of our White Paper consultations.
Almost as soon as I announced my intention to prepare a White Paper, two questions were put to me. I would like to briefly dispose of these now. The first question relates to whether the White Paper is a long-fingering exercise aimed at postponing a decision on when Ireland may achieve the 0.7% of GNP target. My answer to it is a categoric no. This is not a long-fingering exercise. I am confident that a decision on a new timetable of achieving 0.7% of GNP, and on a substantial increase in programme spending in coming years, will be agreed by the Government within the next month or so. It will certainly be agreed before the Taoiseach travels to the millennium development goals summit in New York with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, and me. We want that issue to be resolved. We do not want the White Paper to be dominated by it. We want it to be about the success story that unfolds from our efforts to achieve the figure of 0.7%. We are already a great success in development terms and we want to build on that success.
The second question relates to whether there is any point in introducing a White Paper at this stage, particularly when a review report, on what was then called Ireland Aid, was published as recently as 2002. The answer to that is yes. While the 2002 review was an extremely good report which is still valid, it remains essentially a report. A White Paper, on the other hand, is a statement of official Government policy. We have never had a White Paper on ODA before. It allows for a wider debate and encourages new thinking against the background of anticipated growth. It stimulates discussion on appropriate aid modalities. In short, it offers the possibility of added value and formal adoption that was denied the 2002 review. It will be the Government's template for guiding Irish development policy in the coming years.
It is noteworthy that the UK has had several White Papers over the years to fine tune its development policies. Some of our other European neighbours and friends tend to engage in regular White Paper exercises when reshaping their overseas development programmes. According to the development assistance committee chairman of the OECD, Richard Manning, it encourages countries to draw up White Papers as part of the development of aid programmes. The OECD recommends that they should be produced in seven, eight and ten-year cycles and that they should not happen on a once-off basis and then be just abandoned.
I will outline the timetable and process I have put in place for preparation of the White Paper. Last January, I placed advertisements in the national press announcing my intention to produce a White Paper. I invited submissions from any interested parties by the end of April. Already a number of such submissions have been sent to the Department. However, I have received, and agreed to, requests from a number of organisations for an extension of the submissions deadline. The deadline was a false one in the sense in that we were merely trying to prompt activity and submissions. If people — be they citizens, NGOs or other organisations — want to make submissions, we are open to receiving them right up to the end because we are anxious hear people's views. There are many more things we need to learn, particularly in 2005 when there has been an increase in the level of interest in development policy from ordinary citizens and organisations alike. I take it as a good sign that people are making a particular effort to prepare useful and informed presentations.
I already mentioned the public consultations I am organising throughout the country. I should emphasise that my purpose in attending these meetings is to listen and learn. I do not see them as a pretext to defend the current levels of funding or modalities of assistance. Our first public meeting took place in Limerick two weeks ago and I will be in Waterford tomorrow night for the second. We will continue to hold meetings until May. There will be further meetings in other parts of the country at a later date. Lest we cause offence to anybody from the north east or north west, they will be catered for in the following round. We are not confining our public consultations to a line below Dublin-Athlone-Galway. We will be going north of that line in September and we will furnish the committee with the key times and dates of those meetings in the not too distant future so that members can prepare for them in their constituencies.
In addition to these public meetings, I will be meeting UN agencies and other multilateral partners in New York and Geneva. One of the most striking features of such agencies is that, at present, some prominent Irish people are serving in their upper echelons. We should also consult these individuals. We have punched above our weight for a number of years in diplomatic and world terms and we now see an increase in our presence at UN level. Irish people have taken positions in the middle to upper echelons of the UN and other international agencies. These people have a great deal to contribute to our knowledge of those institutions and of development issues generally.
My Department will also closely examine the work of our EU partners and other major donors, many of whom have undergone similar exercises in recent years. In September, the regular development forum convened by the advisory board to Development Co-operation Ireland will be greatly expanded to facilitate a further consultation on the White Paper. While the organisation of that meeting will be primarily for the advisory board, I understand that participants will be drawn from academia, trade unions, business and the political parties. These will be in addition to the usual attendees from the NGO and missionary communities as well as other interested parties at home and abroad.
Following the formal consultations, I hope that informal consultations will continue while we analyse the submissions and the issues that have been raised in the preceding months. We will also reflect on whether we have consulted widely enough. I wish to be certain about this process. I want to be sure that no potentially useful input has been overlooked. I envisage that a draft of the White Paper will be ready by the end of the year. It should be circulated to other Departments early in 2006. A final version should be presented to the Government for approval shortly thereafter.
While we are still at the early stages, I am pleased with the reaction so far to the proposal for a White Paper and with the level of interest shown by the public. There was a good turnout at the meeting in Limerick and a lively and lengthy discussion took place. It is not easy to draw a crowd for public meetings. I do not have to tell committee members how difficult it is to organise meetings and to obtain a good attendance at constituency level. Our first meeting shows that many people are genuinely interested in and committed to development assistance. I hope, as we continue our series of meetings, that we can build incrementally on that level of interest and commitment.
The development debate in Ireland in recent months has been dominated by discussion of the Government's approach to the UN target of 0.7% and of the timescale and volumes of assistance involved. I have already said that I believe we will have a Government decision on this before the UN summit in September. This issue should not be allowed to monopolise our agenda.
The 0.7% target was raised at the meeting in Limerick but I was pleased that many other matters — including trade and development, development education, the role of the media and what the private sector can and should do — were also discussed. Debt and debt relief for developing countries was also raised in Limerick, again reflecting the broad understanding that aid is not a simple issue of increasing aid volumes, that there are interrelated concepts of trade, debt and volumes of overseas aid. It is important to address all these issues, as well as the particular challenges that Development Co-operation Ireland faces.
We must guarantee proper management of the programme as the aid budget grows. We must address, in an open and transparent manner, any issue of governance that might arise in our programme countries. We must be in a position to offer the public reassurance in terms of obtaining value for money as our budget expands. We must also examine the aid modalities we employ in our partner countries and ensure we find the right mix that corresponds to our expertise and guarantees value for money. We must consider whether, and in what countries, we might open new programmes. We must also consider our commitment to the United Nations and its agencies.
In addition, we must reinforce our already close ties. This has been recognised with the appointment of the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, as special envoy of the Secretary General of the UN. I do not say that lightly. Almost everywhere I travel these days, I and my officials are complimented on the commitments we are making in overseas aid. It is no accident that stellar figures in the development world, ranging from Jim Wolfensohn to Kofi Annan and the heads of many UN agencies, pay high tribute to the Irish overseas aid programme. It is because of this, some of the commitments we made regarding overseas development, our stewardship of the Security Council and our successful Presidency of the European Union that the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, has been picked as an envoy. We are making our commitment at a global level. These appointments are not made lightly but in light of the contribution the country is making. It is not just a matter of the personality and character of the person in question but also a matter of the personality and character of the country and the extent of its contribution to development as a global citizen.
We must also ensure that, when faced with disaster, we maintain the same level of expert and professional response that we showed in the aftermath of the tsunami. We must rise to the challenge of Development Co-operation Ireland's decentralisation to Limerick. We must ensure a smooth transition that allows us to maintain our present high standards of service and delivery. All of these challenges, including decentralisation, will place additional heavy demands on the staff and management of Development Co-operation Ireland.
I hope that, through the White Paper process, we can encourage a wide-ranging public debate. Over the next three years, the Government will spend at least €1.8 billion of public money on overseas aid. This is an enormous sum. How we spend it demands a considered public debate. Such a debate can only increase the visibility of the Development Co-operation Ireland programme. In the process, it should create a greater sense of public ownership. Success in this can only serve to strengthen the programme in the future.
It is very important to make clear at the outset that we are not starting with a blank slate in the preparation of the White Paper. As I stated, we already have an aid programme of very high quality. We operate in line with international best practice and, in some areas, we are shaping that best practice. Therefore, to some degree at least, we will set out in the White Paper existing principles and practices that have brought us to where we are. Policy coherence, untied aid, local ownership, strengthened partnership, enhanced harmonisation and a focus on results are at the core of our programme. The White paper will reiterate and, I hope, underpin these principles. It will ensure that the principles continue to obtain.
The White Paper should also recognise that the aid programme is not, and should not be, static and immutable. This will be the first ever White Paper devoted to overseas development. In 1996, Dick Spring, the then Tánaiste, published an excellent White Paper that addressed development issues as part of our wider foreign policy. However, at a time when Ireland, given its size, has become one of the world's most significant donors and with further increases in prospect, it is important to set out clearly our policy in a single, dedicated text.
Many of our EU partners have undertaken similar exercises and some have done so a number of times. This is our first time. I do not under estimate the size of the task we have taken on, nor do I under estimate the mass of detail through which we will have to sift. However, in this process, we should not lose sight of the basic fact that we live in an unequal world, in which half the population lives on less than €2 per day and in which a third of its children will never see the inside of a classroom. We should not forget that we and our partners are trying, and have a duty, to address this inequality.
I look forward to hearing members' views, which I know will be offered in a positive and constructive spirit. I will also be happy to try to answer any questions they may have. Over the coming months, I will be happy to return to this committee, whenever it wishes, to update it on progress. I invite the committee to make a formal submission on the White Paper.
Ireland is the ninth most significant per capita donor but, in terms of its donor status and contributions, it has the opportunity to become the world’s leading practitioner in the area of development. I do not say this lightly but because my short experience in this ministry has drawn a vital point to my attention, that is, Ireland is a trusted country because of its colonial experience. That we were colonised means we have unique experience and knowledge to offer to countries that have had a similar experience. By coincidence, this includes most of the countries we serve in sub-Saharan Africa. Consequently, we have a unique role to play.
Many people, not just those in central and eastern Europe but also those in Africa and other developing countries, regard Ireland as a model of how to become a member of the European Union and how to transform one's fortunes by progressing from a poor, less well-performing country to one of the wealthiest and most affluent societies on earth. People are looking to Ireland and we can respond and become the best in this area, as we have done in a wide variety of other areas pertaining to our economic and social lives.
