Outrage as state reneges on aid pledge

FORMER UN high commissioner for human rights and former president Mary Robinson launched a scathing attack on the Government yesterday for reneging on its "solemn" pledge to give 0.7% of Ireland's national wealth to developing countries.

Ms Robinson was in New York when the Taoiseach made the pledge to the UN General Assembly in September 2000.

He said Ireland would achieve this level of spending on Third World aid by 2007.

But Finance Minister Brian Cowen revealed in the budget speech Ireland would not achieve this target of spending and the figure would be closer to 0.5% of GNP by 2007.

However, Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Conor Lenihan later revealed in the Dáil that Ireland may not even reach 0.5%.

Mr Lenihan said he hoped Ireland could get as close as possible to 0.5%.

"But this cannot be predicted accurately at this stage," he said.

Ms Robinson said it was wrong for the Government to make this principled commitment to the UN and then renege on it.

"We traded on it - and it was very significant in Ireland getting a seat on the UN Security Council and we got a lot of recognition for it," Ms Robinson told RTÉ.

But Ireland lost high ground when it reneged on the commitment because, up to that, there was a sense Ireland was a real success story with a principled commitment which reflected its own history of poverty, Ms Robinson said.

The Irish pledge to commit 0.7% of GNP to the developing countries was part of an international commitment given by rich countries to give between $50 billion and $60bn (€37bn to e44bn) by 2007.

But only $12bn (€9bn) has been given to developing countries under this deal and Ireland is part of the developed world not meeting this target, Ms Robinson said.

The US is one of the worst contributors to Third World aid, only pledging 0.1% of its GNP to the project.

Ms Robinson said she did not think Ireland should compare itself to other countries and she was not resigned to Ireland not meeting its original commitment to Third World aid.

Aid agency Concern last night said it was shocked that the new lower rate of development aid would not be met.

Concern chief executive Tom Arnold said: "It is very worrying that even the renewed target of 0.5% is already under question."

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said it was not possible to say if the Government would honour its commitment by 2007 because Ireland does not know what its GNP will be by then.