Ireland urged not to abandon poor

INTERNATIONAL aid experts have called on Ireland not to abandon financial commitments to the world’s poor despite our own economic crisis.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) praised Irish efforts to alleviate global hunger and poverty over the past five years in its latest review of the national overseas development assistance (ODA) programme.

But its development assistance committee (DAC) expressed concern over a recent 22% cut in the ODA budget.