IRELAND’S OVERSEAS aid budget has been disproportionately hit during the economic crisis, putting the State’s reputation as a leading player in the development field at risk, an umbrella group of aid agencies has warned.
Launching a report yesterday, Hans Zomer, director of Dóchas, which represents 39 organisations in the development sector, warned: “Although the crisis is very serious here, it is literally a matter of life and death for 150 million people in the world’s poorest countries.”
The report has been sent to all members of the Oireachtas. It says the recent cut of €95 million to the aid budget amounted to roughly 10 per cent of the total overseas development assistance (ODA) programme. “That came on top of previous reductions of €45 million in July 2008 and €15 million in October 2008...”
The report says Ireland’s aid programme is “our calling card to the world, and tangible proof that we keep our word. Cutting the aid programme is tantamount to breaking our promise to the world’s poorest people.”
Concerns at the cut to the aid budget were raised by several members of the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs when Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin appeared before it yesterday.
He described the cut as “regrettable”, but said the Government was committed to retaining aid levels to priority countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It was “not clear” if Ireland would be able to meet the UN goal of allocating 0.7 per cent of GNP to overseas aid by 2012 as reaching the target would depend on the budgetary situation.
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