Bruton says Irish famine sharpens our commitment to aid efforts

THE Taoiseach has suggested that Ireland's experience of famine last century has sharpened both official and voluntary Irish commitment to development and to food security.

Mr Bruton was addressing the United Nations World Food Summit in Rome yesterday.

Speaking as President of the Council of the European Union, Mr Bruton's address on the third day of the summit came during a plenary session dominated by world leaders, including the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng, the French Prime Minister, Mr Alain Juppe the Indonesian President, Mr Suharto, the South Korean Prime Minister, Mr SooSung Lee, and the Italian Foreign Minister Mr Lamberto Dini.

Removing his EU hat for a moment, Mr Bruton said. "It is 150, years since Ireland suffered the effects of a great famine, in which over one million people died and a further million were forced to leave the country.

"Ireland's experience of famine sharpens our official and voluntary commitment to development and food security. I would like to pay special tribute to the role played by Irish non-governmental organisations in this effort," he said.

Mr Bruton said his government was committed to increasing Ireland's official development assistance by 0.05 per cent each year in an effort to achieve the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNP to be set aside for development co-operation assistance.

Irish aid, the Taoiseach said, "is committed to achieving basic needs, poverty reduction and capacity building".

Earlier, Mr Bruton had firmed the EU's "absolute resolve" that the "appalling" situation where by almost one in seven faces hunger or serve malnutrition will not be permitted to continue".

Expressing the EU's support for the Rome Declaration and Plan of Action which will emerge from the summit, Mr Bruton identified five conditions for establishing the stable political, social and economic environment necessary for food security and poverty eradication.

These, he said, were respect for fundamental human rights a democratic political system a transparent and effective legal framework accountable government, and effective participation by all in food security decision making.

Later, the Chinese Prime Minister delivered one of the most upbeat speeches of the week, claiming that China had succeeded in feeding its own massive 1.2 billion population thanks toe "hard work".

China's food consumption level, Mr Peng said, had either reached or surpassed the world average "despite the fact that per capita farmland is below that of the world average".

By 1995, he said, China had trebled its 1949 grain harvest figure.

Calling on developed countries to assume their responsibilities to "provide necessary agricultural development aid" to the developing world and to help with debt relief, Mr Peng concluded "As the world's largest grain producer, China has succeeded in feeding 22 per cent of the world's population, which is an important contribution to world food security."

One famous name missing from the UN platform in Rome yesterday was that of Cuban President Dr Fidel Castro, inexplicably delayed in Cuba.

UN spokespersons yesterday said they still expect the Cuban leader to arrive in Rome in time for the summit's conclusion tomorrow.