The government is to allocate an additional £4 million to fund HIV/AIDS programmes in developing countries, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, has announced.
In a statement timed to coincide with the international AIDS conference in Durban, Ms O'Donnell said that £2.25 million would be contributed to the global initiative to find a vaccine against AIDS. The balance will be spent on campaigns against the disease in Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
Ireland is also to increase fivefold its annual contribution to UNAIDS, the key United Nations body in the fight against the disease, from the present level of £50,000 to £250,000.
Yesterday's announcement could be interpreted as a move to counter criticism that Ireland is not doing enough to help fight the AIDS crisis in the developing world. The Department was represented at this week's high-profile conference in Durban, attended by over 11,000 delegates, by a few middle and lower-ranking officials. No Irish politicians attended: Ms O'Donnell was in New York attending a UN meeting last week.
A representative of the Department defended its decision to send a small delegation. The nature of the annual conference was "not exclusively scientific, yet overwhelmingly technical," he said. There was no requirement or expectation that politicians or other dignitaries would attend.
However, one Irish scientist who was in Durban yesterday expressed disappointment that the Government was not doing more to influence EU policy on HIV/AIDS. Dr Mike Meegan, who works with AIDS orphans in Kenya, described Ireland's contribution as minuscule and negligible.
"Big countries such as the US and the UK have developed advanced strategies to deal with the issue, built around the alleviation of poverty in affected regions. As a small country, Ireland can only play a limited part, but what it can do, and should be doing more, is to push this sort of agenda within Europe. At the moment, the EU doesn't know what it's doing."
As far as Dr Meegan is concerned, "billions of dollars have been spent on the problem and they haven't made much difference."
A spokesman for the Minister pointed out last night that at the last meeting of EU development ministers, Ms O'Donnell had called on the EU to step up its efforts in the fight against AIDS. The meeting resolved to instruct the EU Commission to develop new measures.
The Taoiseach has also raised the problem with the EU Commissioner, Mr Romano Prodi, following Mr Ahern's visit to southern Africa earlier this year.
Irish Aid, the Department's development arm, announced a new strategy on HIV/AIDS last January. This is designed to ensure that support for activities in this area is integrated into all areas of the aid programme.
In Ireland there were 209 cases of HIV infection last year, an all-time high. Drugusers accounted for one-third of cases, heterosexuals 28 per cent and homosexuals 19 per cent.
