I will not subject Members to the 17 pages of my script and will instead give the briefest outline of what it is about. This is important but simple legislation which was passed unamended by the other House.
The International Development Association, IDA for short, is an affiliate of the World Bank. It is one of the bank's main instruments in the fight against extreme poverty. It was set up in 1960 to assist the poorest countries which cannot afford to borrow money from the World Bank on its normal lending terms. These countries had an annual per capita income in 1995 of $905 or less. IDA beneficiaries are the people of the world's 79 poorest countries, which have a total population of 3.3 billion. This is equal to 57 per cent of the world's population. The IDA is the world's most important source of global multilateral concessional assistance. Sustainable poverty reduction remains the overarching objective of the association and of development.
Broad based economic growth, led by the private sector, and environmental sustainability are two key supporting objectives of the IDA. The association also recognises that development requires growth accompanied by broad based investment in basic health, education and infrastructure. The critical underpinning requires macro-economic stability accompanied by structural adjustment and the building of civil society.
The International Development Association fund is replenished every three years. This Bill provides for the next replenishment, which covers the period June 1996 to June 1999. The appendix to the Bill outlines the previous replenishments. Donor funds will be supplemented by repayments made by IDA's borrowers in respect of earlier loans and by transfers from the available net income of the World Bank. The United States is contributing only to years two and three of the eleventh replenishment. As a result, it has been necessary for the IDA to establish a one year interim fund on an exceptional basis. The absence of the US contribution for the first year prevented the other donors from agreeing on an adequate and fully burden sharing funding basis for the full three year period. The fund is therefore divided to provide a facility in year one without the United States and with its full participation for the other two years.
The Irish contribution to the eleventh replenishment will amount to £13 million. This Bill facilitates the State's contribution. The money goes to the poorest of poor countries. We have had a traditional interest in those countries through our missionaries and our overseas aid programme. I can offer more information on the past performance of the fund and so forth and I am willing to answer questions in that regard. However, it would be fairer if I listened to the views of Senators rather than lecture the House for another 20 minutes.