TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen yesterday insisted the Government's focus on overseas aid will continue despite the current economic difficulties.
Speaking at an international forum in Dublin on children affected by HIV and Aids, Mr Cowen said Ireland was now the sixth largest donor in the world.
"Ireland's record on the millennium development goals is impressive. This year, we will spend €900 million on overseas aid. This is an enormous increase over the past few years . . . This is a significant achievement," he said.
"Ireland's aid programme has always been focused on the poorest and most vulnerable. This focus will continue."
Overseas development aid for 2009 is expected to be reduced in line with a reduction in gross domestic product in next week's budget. However, the Taoiseach has said that the target of reaching the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2012 will remain.
The Fourth Global Forum on Children Affected by HIV and Aids, organised by Irish Aid, the Government's overseas aid programme, and Unicef, the UN's fund for children, is aimed at building up momentum in reaching a series of goals agreed by world leaders in 2000.
These include supporting child health and nutrition, quality basic education for all children, access to clean water and sanitation, and protection from Aids.
About 200 from 42 countries are attending the two-day event, which is expected to result in a joint declaration on the global fight against HIV and Aids.
Also speaking at the forum was singer Annie Lennox, who has campaigned to highlight the plight of millions of children affected by HIV and Aids worldwide.
She called on governments to meet their aid pledges and work over the long term to support developing countries.
"Over the years, governments are notoriously bad at keeping their promises. We also realise that in the year 2008, many of the goals for 2015 are nowhere near the target.
"Nevertheless, we must not walk away from the issues. Governments come and go, but poverty remains.
"We can only keep trying to lobby and the advocacy must continue. It's a long-term thing. It's not showing up at a concert and then going away. It must be lasting."
Ms Lennox said the Irish Government was doing a "fantastic" job and stressed that ordinary people have to do more to meet the needs of frontline workers and the people they help.
"Anybody who has a laptop has a tool to connect. It's so powerful and it's international. We can really use the facilities that we have. We use them for social networking and really we can use them for advocacy and change."
Unicef executive director Ann Veneman told the forum that children in households affected by the virus were often forced to drop out of school to care for sick relatives or to engage in paid work when a breadwinner falls ill.
She said the needs of these children needed to be addressed through social protection.
Cash transfers and other social welfare instruments may alleviate poverty, improve school attendance and nutritional intake, she said.
"Even though there has been progress in the global fight against HIV and Aids, last year some 370,000 children were newly diagnosed with HIV. The rate of HIV infection among children is unacceptable and needs to be addressed by the global community as a matter of urgency," Ms Veneman said.
Aid agencies estimate that more than 1,000 children are infected with HIV every day and that over 15 million worldwide have lost one or both parents to Aids.
