PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO HONDURAS MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENT MCALEESE AND THE HONDURAN PRESIDENT
PRESIDENT’S VISIT TO HONDURAS MEETING BETWEEN PRESIDENT MCALEESE AND THE HONDURAN PRESIDENT WEDNESDAY, 31 MARCH, 1999
People in Ireland were deeply affected by the scale of the devastation visited on the people of Honduras by Hurricane Mitch.
Ireland has made a modest but consistent contribution to development in Honduras through support for the Irish voluntary service agency APSO and the NGO Trócaire. Both of these agencies have long been associated with Honduras and in recent years established their regional offices in Tegucigalpa.
My visit here today gives voice to the sympathy, support and solidarity of the people of Ireland with the people of Honduras as they work to rebuild their houses, lives and communities. I am looking forward to visiting a number of badly affected areas and to seeing the work the Irish Army and the NGOs are doing to support the reconstruction efforts of the affected communities.
I wish to assure you that Ireland will remain engaged with the rehabilitation effort and we are considering how best to allocate further resources. In addition, the Irish Minister for Defence has made a number of Army personnel available to assist in the relief effort. They are working with the local community in Santa Rosa de Aguan to rebuild a school and a medical centre.
I am hopeful that the international community as a whole will continue to show solidarity with the region both through the provision of rehabilitation assistance and in tackling the long term social, economic and environmental issues involved.
Ireland is deeply concerned about the debt crisis and its profoundly negative impact on development. There needs to be a coherent international response to this problem. It is certainly a matter which the Irish public have taken up enthusiastically and there is a lot of interest in the Jubilee 2000 Initiative.
Although Ireland is not itself a bilateral creditor, we are providing substantial amounts in debt relief, both bilaterally and multilaterally. We will be allocating US$22 million to the HIPC debt initiative, most of which will be paid to the World Bank, as part of our multilateral debt relief package.
We wish you well in your continuing efforts to rebuild your country.