Trocaire chairman says government must fulfil promise on aid

THE Government must significantly increase its contribution to programmes for development aid in third world countries, the chairman of the Catholic aid agency Trocaire said yesterday.

Bishop John Kirby also expressed concern that the Government may fail to meet its spending targets on overseas development.

The 189 member states of the UN have committed themselves in the Millennium Development Goals to funding the organisation’s target of reducing the level of absolute poverty in the world by half by 2015.

Bishop Kirby chose the timing of his remarks to coincide with today’s launch of the UN Human Development report which is being held in Ireland for the first time. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, U2 lead singer, Bono and the Minister for State with responsibility for overseas development, Tom Kitt will address the event which will also be attended by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson and other senior UN officials.

Bishop Kirby said Ireland has been chosen as the venue for the launch of the report because of the Government’s pledge to reach the UN target of committing 0.7% of GNP on overseas development assistance by 2007.

However, the Trocaire chairman questioned whether Ireland would fulfil its commitment as he claimed the Government had already stalled in its progress on meeting the target.

“This year the Government will spend only 0.41% of national income on overseas aid. This is far below the 0.48% of GNP which the Government has been due to spend in 2003 under an agreement reached between the ministers for Foreign Affairs and Finance in 2000,” said Bishop Kirby.

He called upon the Taoiseach to use today’s launch of the UN report to “copperfasten” Ireland’s commitment to the 0.7% goal. Despite the Government's pledges, it was clear that the target was in danger of not being met, said the bishop.

He urged the Taoiseach to set out a timetable of incremental increases for the aid budget to enable “stable, predictable and achievable growth” on its assistance to developing countries.

Bishop Kirby noted that the UN report, which focuses on the Millennium Development Goals, highlights the gap between promises made by governments and their willingness to put those into action.

“Some $50 billion additional aid per year would be necessary to meet the goals - only a fraction has been delivered by rich nations,” said Bishop Kirby.

In response to the bishop’s comments, the Taoiseach said he didn’t believe the Government had any case to answer as Ireland currently contributed 450m.

The former US president, Bill Clinton also defended the State’s current overseas aid contributions.

“Almost no country is doing as well,” said Mr Clinton who pointed out that the Government’s funding levels were way ahead of the US.