Top Countries to Receive Irish Aid

Question 77: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the top ten countries to receive Irish aid; the amount of funding they received in 2010; and the amount they are budgeted to each receive in 2011. [Ref No: 15754/11]

Response from Minister of State, Ms. Jan O’Sullivan, T.D. (Department of Foreign Affairs): 15^th June 2011

The Government’s aid programme, which is administered by Irish Aid in the Department of Foreign Affairs, provides assistance to over eighty countries in the developing world, with a strong focus on the least developed countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.

There are nine Programme Countries for the aid programme, where we have a commitment to long term strategic assistance. Irish Aid administers specific budgets for long term development assistance in these countries, on the basis of detailed development plans focused on the reduction of poverty levels. The Programme Countries are: Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia and Timor Leste. Additional funding is also provided through development Non-Governmental Organisations, missionaries, the multilateral and UN systems, and in response to humanitarian emergencies.

The ten countries to which the greatest amount of funding was directed under the aid programme in 2010, are listed below. Final confirmation of these figures is subject to the receipt of the finalised detailed financial reports from NGOs and other partners.

For 2011, the following direct programme budgets have been allocated for our aid programmes in the nine Programme Countries (these figures do not include Irish Aid funding which will be channelled through NGOs and multilateral agencies)-

Full details of all countries receiving funding from the Government under the aid programme are contained in the Irish Aid Annual Reports which can be accessed at http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/publications_report.asp and which have been placed in the Dáil Library. I expect that the Annual Report for 2010 will be published in September.