92 Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will report on his visit to the United Nations in relation to the review of the millennium goals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36013/10]

Ireland played an important role at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Review Summit at the UN in New York from 20 to 22 September, working closely with our EU partners, with the US Administration, the UN Secretary General and our partner countries in Africa. I participated in the Summit, along with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and we were pleased that there was strong representation also by the Irish development Non-Governmental Organisations.

The MDGs are a series of detailed development targets agreed by world leaders at the UN in 2000, against which we must measure progress on the eradication of poverty, in all its forms, by 2015. In preparing for the Summit, we recognised that important progress has been made in areas such as primary school enrolment and the treatment of HIV and AIDS, but that the actual numbers of people living in poverty and hunger continue to increase. Ireland engaged intensively in the negotiations for the Summit Outcome Document, which was adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly, and which recognises that we need to refocus international efforts if we are to meet the Goals over the coming five years.

The key principles which informed our input to the Summit were recognition of the need to achieve all of the MDGs universally in order to combat global hunger and poverty, and the importance of delivering progress for the regions and groups which have made least progress, notably in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the geographic focus of Ireland's aid programme.

Throughout the Summit, Ireland placed a central emphasis on the global hunger crisis, arguing that it is impeding progress across the full range of development goals. There are up to one billion people facing life without sufficient food in the world today. We consistently made the point that a focus on the nutritional needs of women, children and people living in vulnerable situations is key to making progress in tackling this avoidable crisis.

Minister Martin outlined Ireland's overall approach in Ireland's national statement to the Summit, and I focused at the first Roundtable discussion on the opening morning of the Summit on practical steps the international community can take to tackle undernutrition, building on the recommendations of the 2008 Report of the Government's Hunger Task Force, which we have accepted and endorsed. Ireland made a particularly strong policy impact by co-hosting with the US Administration a major international meeting which marked the launch of a new partnership between Governments, civil society and the private sector to address undernutrition. The first part of the meeting was co-chaired by Minister Martin and US Secretary of State Clinton, and was addressed, among others, by the UN Secretary General, the Foreign Minister of Uganda and representatives of international civil society. I chaired the second part, with the Head of the US Aid Programme. It explored in detail the interventions which can be most effective in the first 1,000 days of the life of a child, from pregnancy to two years old.

The Review Summit reaffirmed the strong commitment of the international community to achieving the MDGs by 2015. I believe it did so in a realistic manner, recognising that in the current global economic environment, it is essential that we focus rigorously on the effectiveness of our aid, and on key sectors and priorities. The success of this international effort will be measured in the years ahead by the impact of our actions and policies on the lives of the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the world.