asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the total expenditure on Third World aid by the Government for the first nine months of 1980; the total figure provided for in 1980 by the Government for this area of expenditure; and if it is the intention of the Government to provide further assistance in the final quarter of 1980 in the light of the continued major public criticisms of Government policy concerning the cut-back in the budget provision of 1980.

As I informed the Deputy on 25 March 1980, the total allocation for Ireland's official development assistance, ODA, in 1980 is £16,226 million, an increase of 12 per cent on the amount available in 1979.

The question of the out-turn for the first nine months of 1980 cannot be easily answered. The Deputy will be aware that a substantial portion of our ODA takes the form of multilateral payments to various agencies involved in third world development. The rate of call-up of these funds varies and no significance attaches to a particular level of expenditure at any one time of the year. The important thing is that all, if possible, of the moneys allocated to official development assistance should be expended in that way and not lost through failure on the part of the agency concerned to effect a call-up. Having said that, I can tell the Deputy that it is estimated that approximately £10 million, or 62 per cent of the total allocation, was spent in the first nine months of this year.

We have been able to meet our commitments this year in the bilateral aid programme as elsewhere. Not all of the amount we had set aside as payment to the European Development Fund was required this year. We therefore were able to transfer these savings within the Vote for International Co-operation so as to give an additional £100,000 each to APSO and the Fund for Disaster Relief. We also have an additional £159,000 for the UN Development Programme and, finally, we have added £1,202,000 to the grant-in-aid for the Bilateral Aid Fund. This very substantial additional sum has enabled the bilateral aid programme to meet all its commitments this year.

Would the Minister repeat the figure, that nearly 52 per cent of the budgeted figure——

62 per cent.

Nearly 62 per cent of the budgeted figure was expended in the first nine months. Has the Minister any additional explanation to give to the House for that?

I am told that that is not unusual. It is a variable matter. The important fact is that at the end of the year it is expected that the total allocation will have been spent. I have been able to effect this by reason of the internal transfers that I mentioned, particularly the substantial transfer of £1,202,000 to the bilateral aid fund. I moved an Estimate on this aspect about a month ago in the House.

Bearing in mind that the original estimate showed a cut-back of 28 per cent in bilateral aid, what will the effective cut-back now be, having regard to the internal transfers to which the Minister has referred?

The Deputy can work out the percentages from the figures I have given. The main point is that the overall global increase was of the order of 12 per cent on the amount available in 1979. That includes both bilateral and multilateral aid.

Will the arrangements made by the Minister's predecessor whereby any money not spent will be carried over to the following year and not returned to the Exchequer still stand?

They still stand. In fact those arrangements operated this year as against last year, as there was a carry over from 1979 to 1980. It will happen next year if there is a sum outstanding.

10.

asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will outline the position in regard to leave of absence and pension rights etc., for those wishing to devote a period of time as volunteers in the Third World.

Civil Servants who wish to devote a period of time as volunteers in the Third World have the choice of special leave without pay or special leave with pay subject to the recoupment of pay plus full superannuation contributions. Similar arrangements are possible for people in the public sector other than civil servants.

The granting of leave of absence in similar circumstances to somebody in the private sector is a matter for arrangement between the individual and his or her employer. There is already a general provision in the Social Welfare Acts whereby persons who have acquired pension rights under the social insurance system and cease to be insurably employed may protect those rights by becoming voluntary contributors.

What is the position of somebody employed as a teacher in a voluntary school? Is any encouragement given to voluntary schools to allow leave of absence, and would pension rights be protected as far as possible?

Pension rights are protected. I have found the voluntary schools very co-operative in releasing teachers in the circumstances mentioned by the Deputy.