Govt under growing pressure to set new aid target

Aid groups attached to the Make Poverty History campaign are due to hold an overnight vigil outside government buildings in Dublin tonight.

The event is designed to pressure the Government into setting a new target date to meet its commitments on overseas aid.

The Fianna Fail-Progressive Democrats coalition had promised to spent 0.7% of Ireland's GNP on overseas aid by 2007, but it reneged on this promise last year.

Aid agencies now want the Government to set a new target date of 2010 to coincide with a UN poverty summit in New York next week.