Agencies challenge Government over €100m cut in aid

AID REDUCTION:AID AGENCIES have challenged the Government to explain how it intends to meet UN overseas development targets in light of yesterday's €100 million cut to the aid budget.

The development sector reacted with outrage to the Government’s decision to reduce the overseas development assistance (ODA) budget to €696 million, and several aid agencies called for an immediate reversal of the cut.

“To cut overseas aid on this scale is hugely disproportionate,” said Tom Arnold, chief executive of Concern.

“It seriously undermines our international reputation for our sense of fairness, justice and solidarity.”

John O’Shea of Goal agreed. “It’s a bad day for the poor and it’s a bad day for the reputation of the Irish Government as a caring entity,” he said.

Hans Zomer, director of Dóchas, an umbrella group comprising almost 40 Irish development organisations, noted that the latest cut means that, in the past four months alone, aid spending had been reduced by €195 million or 21.8 per cent of the projected total for 2009. “Despite what the Government says, such cuts are well beyond what would be fair, proportionate or just,” Mr Zomer said.

“We call on the Government to reverse this dangerous decision, which will cost lives.”

Trócaire director Justin Kilcullen echoed the call for a reversal.

“These additional cuts are based on political expediency by a Government that sees aid as a soft target. The impact these cuts will have is unacceptable,” he said.

Mr Kilcullen called on the Government to lay out its plans for reaching the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of gross national product on overseas aid by 2012.

“The Government has long been trading on the international kudos it received for its promises on overseas aid and cannot simply abandon those plans and the expectations they have created in the world’s poorest countries,” he added.

In a statement, Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin and Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power expressed regret for what they said had been a “difficult” decision.

But they insisted the Government was committed to resuming the expansion of the aid programme as soon as economic growth was re-established. They admitted, however, that yesterday’s cut would make it more difficult to achieve the 2012 target.

“Nevertheless, the Government will continue to work towards it,” the statement said.

“We will make a full assessment of Ireland’s capacity to achieve the target in the context of the preparation of the 2010 budget.”

The Ministers pledged to “work even harder” to ensure the effectiveness of Ireland’s aid programme, and noted that notwithstanding yesterday’s cut the State looked likely to maintain its ranking as the world’s sixth-largest donor in per capita terms.