Private Members Debate on Overseas Development Aid - 20th May 2009

Private Members Debate on Overseas Development Aid - 20th May 2009
Senator David Norris: It is absolutely outrageous. The whole thing is a spin. On "Prime Time" on 5 May, in response to a question from Mr. Justin Kilcullen, the Minister of State said we were protecting short-term emergency humanitarian aid because that was where our focus was. We want to save lives, but we are saving lives with our programme in any event. Yet when the researchers contacted the Minister of State's office they were told that the earmarked funding for rapid onset humanitarian emergency programmes, which is exactly what he was talking about, was reduced by 70% from €20 million to €6 million. The office, on being contacted again, responded that what the Minister of State had intended to say was that the reduced amount, in other words the 30% pittance left, would be delivered. That is sheer nonsense.
Now the Minister of State is saying, "although the motion is framed in positive terms". Of course it is as it says nothing, apart from how wonderful we are, but we are not. I do not believe it is right to take historical credit for a situation that has developed over some years, in the present circumstances when we are cutting deeply into this aid. Again, the Minister of State is taking credit for the generosity of the Irish people. The Government is not the Irish people.
Deputy Peter Power: No, I am not. I am complimenting the generosity-----
Senator David Norris: It is on page 4, where he talks about the wonderful generosity of the Irish people. It is not his generosity, I would say. He says he is continuing to work towards the target. He continues to work towards missing it. This is disastrous. He says he accepts that the cuts, which are savage, will have an effect. He does not even have the nerve to acknowledge that it is a negative effect. He talks about going off to huddle with his fellow Ministers in Europe, and we know a number of them are cooking the books, as the Minister of State knows, I am sure, because he is a decent man. They are including things such as debt cancellation as if they were giving money. That is shameful and is something over which I hope the Minister of State, who is a decent man, will raise and rattle their cage in Europe.
Former President Mary Robinson, an old friend of mine and of many people in this House, said that she is concerned because the cuts are proportionately more severe in this than in any other European country. We are told that 25 jobs in this country will be sacrificed from all the aid agencies. Overseas it will be worse. By the end of this year Concern will have cut 500 jobs overseas and its budget is reduced from €26 million to €20 million. Goal will cut nine jobs from its Irish office and its budget is down 29%. Trócaire says it will be forced out of a programme that supported 143,000 in east Africa, who will starve to death. Then there are the children with HIV, where in clinics they are prevented from getting HIV. There is Oxfam, too, and the cholera prevention programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as Amawele in South Africa. We are always boasting about our connections with South Africa and taking credit for the work of people such as Mr. Niall Mellon, yet there is no funding. A number of those projects will close down.
There have been €195 million in cuts, about the cost of a small motorway. The cuts will progress from 0.58% in 2008 to 0.48%. We are going backwards, despite being promised time and again that this would not happen. We are now unlikely to meet the target. Other European countries are shaming us.
Deputy Peter Power: That is not correct. Nobody has gone past us.
Senator David Norris: It is correct. I will dispute that with the Minister of State and we can bandy figures, but these are the cuts. I said the Minister of State had a brass neck, but I do not believe he wrote that stuff. Neither do I believe that he framed the motion. I believe that if he was left on his own he would fight and I hope the strong words he has heard in the Seanad tonight will give him armaments with which to fight, both within Government and with its partners in the European Union, most of which should be thoroughly ashamed.