Plan to join development bank ends 'victim status'

Ireland's plan to join a European development bank is a symbol that the State is finally losing its "victim status" within the EU, the Dáil has been told.

The Green Party spokesman, Mr Dan Boyle, said Ireland had been a poor country for most of its history but membership of the Council of Europe Development Bank was perhaps a "recognition that we are finally losing our victim status and have something to contribute".

He was speaking in a debate on the introduction of legislation to allow the State join the bank, which provides loans and guarantees for social projects across poorer areas of the European Union and particularly Central and Eastern Europe.

This includes projects in the Balkans to assist refugees to resettle in their home countries after the war.

The Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Noel Treacy, said that although Europe was one of the most developed regions of the world there were "large pockets of poverty still", and the Council of Europe Development Bank Bill allows for Ireland to join the bank.

This would be a "reflection of our commitment to wider European solidarity".

Ireland will pay a total of €13 million in four annual instalments.

In the past 10 years the bank had lent some € 1.8 billion for 66 projects in 14 countries.

Fine Gael's finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, said it was right for Ireland "which is the second wealthiest country in Europe per head of population in GDP terms".

He added, however, that the State should take its commitments to assisting development within Europe and the developing world much more seriously.

"Ireland has been a significant beneficiary of assistance from development banks and development aid, in particular that provided by the EU."

"It is a pity it has taken the Government approximately two years to introduce the Bill," said Ms Joan Burton, Labour's finance spokeswoman.

She commended the work of the bank to "promote notions and activities relating to social solidarity, particularly with regard to eastern European countries".

Mr Brendan Howlin, (Lab, Wexford) said that "there is a certain irony in the fact that the bank was established in 1956 and that Ireland is only now getting around to applying for membership.

"That is an indication of our mindset during the years in question. Ireland was itself a developing country and did not want to make capital available for use elsewhere."

Independent Sligo-Leitrim TD and MEP Ms Marian Harkin expressed concern about the uses of development aid for "securitisation".

It was "critical that money earmarked for development aid is not spent on that securitisation but goes to the people who need it most."

Sinn Féin's finance spokesman, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, pointed out that about 68 million Europeans were experiencing poverty and "the work of the development bank will address only a very small fraction of the needs of that number".