Aid U-turn still dogging Government

THE Government came under fire once more yesterday for failing to honour its promise of committing 0.7% of gross national product (GNP) to overseas aid by 2007.

Labour published a bill which, if the party were returned to power and could enact it, would enshrine the 0.7% figure in law.

This would compel the Government of the day to pay the 0.7% without question each year. The money would automatically come off the State’s central fund without recourse to a Dáil vote. A similar system already operates in the case of the National Pensions Reserve Fund, which is automatically afforded 1% of GNP each year.

Speaking at the publication of the bill yesterday, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte excoriated Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for failing to fulfil the 0.7% pledge he made at the UN General Assembly in 2000.

“The Taoiseach made it a solemn commitment, but the Government has failed to make it the priority it deserves to be,” Mr Rabbitte said. “Of all the promises made and broken by this Government, its broken promise on overseas development aid to the world’s poor is the most ignominious and disgraceful.”

The criticism came just two days after U2 singer Bono made an impassioned plea to the Taoiseach at the second of the band’s three concerts in Dublin’s Croke Park stadium. The Taoiseach, who was present at the concert, was booed by the crowd.

The Government recently signed up to a new EU timeframe under which the member states envisage hitting the 0.7% target by 2015 - eight years later than envisaged in Ireland’s case.

But Mr Rabbitte said the 0.7% commitment would never be met, nor maintained, as long as overseas aid had to compete directly with domestic spending concerns in the annual budgetary process.

Labour cannot introduce the bill in the Dáil, because under House rules, only the Government can propose legislation which “involves the imposition of a charge upon by the people.”