TDs call for closer audit as overseas aid to hit €1.4bn

A CLOSER audit of how Ireland’s burgeoning overseas aid budget is spent was urged by TDs yesterday.

With Irish Aid’s spending set to hit €1.4 billion a year by 2012, members of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) called for more transparency regarding how it is used.

Ireland is the sixth-most generous overseas aid provider in the world per head of population and last year sent €914 million to development projects in the Third World.