IRELAND must use its EU presidency to promote the rights of developing countries, the Fianna Fail leader has urged. Mr Bertie Ahern called on the Government to propose the reduction of tariffs on imports from such countries and the tackling of Third World debt.
"The degree of influence that Irish politicians and NGOs (non governmental organisations) can bring to bear on the powers that be in the European Union and within the United Nations, is far from limited," he said.
Mr Ahern was launching Trocaire's annual Development review in Dublin yesterday. It contains articles on Somalia and Ethiopia, the new challenges facing NGOs and the role Ireland can play in promoting sound development policies during its EU presidency.
Much of the dialogue surrounding the Irish aid programme has focused on the quantity of aid rather than on wider foreign policy concerns, Mr Ahern said.
"Foreign policy must go beyond our development assistance programme and deal also with the need for Ireland to play a greater role as a voice for the developing world in the corner of power in Europe and the world."
The director of Trocaire, Mr Justin Kilcullen, said: "After a period of decline in Overseas Development Aid, the last three years have seen a real commitment to the value of aid and beyond that to policy dialogue with NGOs."
Irish aid, at 0.3 per cent of GNP, is still quite a distance from the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNP, he said, but it is moving in the right direction. Two recent governments, comprising five political parties, had made commitments to ensure it would continue to rise, he said.
He said that in the 1980s, the argument used for not moving towards the target was that economic growth was too slow. We should not now accept any argument that the target cannot be met because GNP is growing too fast. The commitment to an 0.05 per cent annual increase until the target is reached must be met.