Labour’s overseas aid record defended

I AM not surprised that Fianna Fáil’s Deputy Charlie O’Connor (Irish Examiner letters, December 13) is surprised and embarrassed by the Labour party campaign to highlight the decision of the Taoiseach to renege on the solemn commitment he made to the UN in September 2000 that, by 2007, Ireland would reach the UN Overseas Development Aid (ODA) target of 0.7% of GNP.

However, in his indignation he has actually let the cat out of the bag on just how far the Government is reneging on its commitments, when he confirms that our contribution next year will reach just 0.39% of GNP.

The Government says our contribution would be maintained at in or around the 0.41% achieved in 2001.

Deputy O’Connor now confirms that this will not be the case.

He also totally misrepresents the achievements of the Labour Party on ODA when we were last in government. When Labour went into government in 1992, Ireland’s ODA contribution amounted to just 0.16% of GNP. By the time Ruairi Quinn delivered his last budget in 1997 the percentage had almost doubled to 0.31%.

After more than seven years of Fianna Fáil/PD government, during a period of unprecedented economic growth the best that this administration has been able to do is to increase that to just 0.39%.

The Taoiseach and Mr O’Connor should hang their heads in shame.

Joan Burton TD

Labour Party Spokesperson on Finance

Dáil Eireann

Dublin 2