15 DFómh 2012, 09:51
A delegation from the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade is visiting Sierra Leone from 14th-17th October to see the work of Irish Aid and the impact of its programme there.
The visit, which is being organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be the first by an Oireachtas Committee to a post-conflict country which is receiving development assistance from Ireland. The delegation, which will be led by Committee chairman Pat Breen TD and includes Deputies Bernard Durkan, Eric Byrne and Maureen O’Sullivan, will have an opportunity to review Ireland’s development programme and Irish Aid’s programme in the country.
As well as visiting health centres, schools and an agricultural business centre supported by Irish funding, the delegation will also meet with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and representatives from the Human Rights Commission and National Election Commission.
Committee Chairman, Pat Breen TD said: “Sierra Leone has suffered enormously as a result of civil war and under-development. Maternal and child mortality rates are among the highest in the world. Tragically, one in five children in Sierra Leone dies before their fifth birthday. Adult literacy stands at 41%, life expectancy is just 48 years and more than half of the population lives on less than €1.25 a day. The civil war between 1991 and 2002 resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and left hundreds of thousands more displaced.
“Ireland has had an active engagement with Sierra Leone since the end of the brutal conflict there in 2002. To date in 2012, Irish Aid has provided €7.2 million to Sierra Leone to improve access to basic healthcare, provide life-saving nutrition to mothers and children, tackle a deadly cholera outbreak and to support peace-building initiatives.
“The programme is delivered through targeted partnerships with the United Nations and aid agencies. We will see at first-hand the important work being carried out using Irish funding to help address health issues, improve education levels and tackle inequality. During the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone, it is estimated that 10,000 children were forcibly recruited to fight. Irish Aid has supported programmes to provide trauma counselling and access to vocational training to these young men and women.
“Reviewing humanitarian funding and longer term development assistance is also a key part of our Committee’s remit and, to date, we have had a series of meetings with the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore TD, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/Irish Aid , Irish NGOs and diplomats to discuss our aid programmes.
“The Committee is playing an important role in contributing to the review of the White Paper on Irish Aid and visits like the one we are making to Sierra Leone to witness at first-hand the work being undertaken by Irish Aid will help inform our contribution and help shape policy so that our aid programmes are based on a performance-focused and results-based approach.”
For further information please contact:
Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 3903
M: 086-0496518
F: +3531 618 4551
Committee Membership
Pat Breen, TD (Chairman)
Eric Byrne, TD
Olivia Mitchell, TD
Bernard J Durkan, TD
Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, TD
Gerald Nash, TD
Dan Neville, TD
Maureen O’Sullivan, TD
Brendan Smith, TD
Senators
Deirdre Clune,
Mark Daly,
Lorraine Higgins,
Michael Mullins,
David Norris,
Jim Walsh.