Govt must raise overseas aid budget: Trócaire

Irish aid agency Trócaire will lobby the Government to increase its commitments to overseas aid in the November budget.

Bertie Ahern has previously committed to the UN to increase Ireland’s overseas contribution to 0.7% of the GNP and the charity says there is an onus on Ireland to live up to its commitment within the lifetime of this Government .

The agency said it wants to see an incremental increase in this year's budget to avoid a hike increase in future years and spokesperson Lorna Gold says they're putting together final submissions for the Minister for Finance at the moment.

She said: "We will be lobbying the Government on official development assistance...it's already come quite a long way in moving forward, but it has to make and incremental increase this year so that the 0.7% target isn't all stacked up to 2006 where they'll be faced with a massive increase in overseas aid."