Labour slams further cuts in aid budget

The Labour Party has accused the Government of further dishonesty after a national newspaper discovered that the extent of cuts in overseas aid is actually €8m to €10m more than officially announced.

In June, Junior Minister Tom Kitt revealed that €32m was being withheld from the Foreign Affairs Department’s aid budget as part of a series of government cutbacks.

However, a UCD professor has discovered during a study of budget figures that up to €10m more has also been cut from aid budgets in other departments.

Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan said: “I think it’s quite shameful that the Government has decided to cut the aid to poorer countries of the world in the way that it has done . . . and I think the method in which this information has come to the public is also quite dishonest.”