There is no more devalued currency than the politician's promise, but sometimes undertakings are given in such solemn circumstance and on matters of such gravity that to break them would be unthinkable.
The Taoiseach's pledge at the Millennium Summit in New York this week to increase aid to the less developed world by £600 million over seven years is therefore in a different category from old election slogans like the famous one about draining the River Shannon.
It would be unconscionable to play politics with the lives and welfare of the world's poor, and there are no indications that this is intended, or that any future governments are likely to renege on promises given on their behalf. More than 1 billion of the world's population are struggling on less than $1 per day; 12 million children die before their fifth birthday; some 36 million people are infected with the HIV virus; and 21 million are displaced by civil war, disease, famine and ecological disasters.
It's not good enough, and whatever excuses there may have been in the past about Irish underdevelopment, emigration and economic difficulties, the advent of the Celtic Tiger means no valid reasons can be advanced for failing to meet the modest United Nations target of spending 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product on overseas aid.
This was the undertaking given by Mr Ahern to the assembled leaders of the world at UN headquarters. Already Government officials are turning their minds to the practical "outworkings" of his announcement. Spending at present is about £198 million, a fivefold increase on the 1992 figure of £40 million.
As a stepping-stone towards the UN target, Mr Ahern said the Irish aid programme would reach 0.45 per cent of GNP by the end of 2002, bringing the aid budget to about £365 million. The final achievement of the required spending level in 2007 will mean more than £800 million going on aid every year.
The decision was made in principle last July and confirmed at a Cabinet meeting last Tuesday, chaired by the Tanaiste, Ms Harney. Her party colleague, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, has responsibility for overseas aid and it will be her job to ensure the foundations are laid for the successful management and proper distribution of funds that will be bigger than the budget of most Government departments.
"This is an unprecedented amount of money," she said in New York this week. "It is going to give us a new standing internationally." Last year, only four countries met the UN target on aid as a percentage of GNP: Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden, with Ireland in 10th place, after Finland and just ahead of Belgium.
Ms O'Donnell has staked her political reputation on getting the aid budget increased and despite having "huge rows" with the Department of Finance, she reports that the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste were particularly helpful in securing the new funds.
"My view was that our economic success made it imperative," she said. She also acknowledges the value of cross-party support, the backing of the social partners, the churches and public opinion generally.
"There's huge popular support, as evidenced by the very high voluntary contributions." When the Taoiseach announced the decision at the summit, "all the developing countries and UN agencies were delighted".
She believes a budget this size may ultimately require the establishment of a separate Government department with its own Cabinet minister, or else an independent agency: "It's going to be a major aid management exercise."
Ireland has six "priority countries" which receive special attention when aid money is being disbursed and with whom there are special bilateral arrangements on a government-to-government basis. All six are in Africa: Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. East Timor is being added as a seventh country and an Irish aid office has been opened there; a further country in Asia may also join the list.
These priority countries stand to benefit from the new funds as they come to grips with the extraordinary difficulties they face: they are among the poorest and most deprived on Earth.
The traditional view of aid is as a handout provided when flood, earthquake, war or famine strike. In reality, while disaster relief is still a very relevant component, much of the aid is provided on a structured and continuing basis. Thus, long-term projects are in place in the priority countries to improve primary education, hospital services, sanitation and drainage, as well as the relatively new dimension of promoting human rights and democratisation. Ireland is also helping its priority countries to secure relief on their international debts. "We work with the government of the country in question," Ms O'Donnell said. "They love the way we do development, because we do it with them in the driving seat."
As if poverty, war and famine were not bad enough, Africa has been tragically afflicted by the AIDS phenomenon which has reached the level of a pandemic. There is little point pouring in aid for nation-building and reconstruction when the young people who should be at the most productive stage of their lives are wasting away instead from a deadly disease. Therefore, combating AIDS and trying to find a vaccine for it has been incorporated as a major component of all Irish development work.
"Everything we do now is going to include the AIDS pandemic," the Minister of State said. "It has the capacity to undo a lot of the good that has been achieved and it needs a particular focus now before it gets any worse."
A significant proportion of the funds will be channelled through multilateral agencies such as the UN and there will also be what Ms O'Donnell calls "a new, much deeper relationship" with non-governmental organisations such as Trocaire, Concern and Goal, not to mention missionary orders taking part in development work.
THE Taoiseach told the UN gathering that to ensure the extra funds had maximum impact, there would be a review of the structure and range of aid programmes. Ms O'Donnell said she would be leading this review, which would be overseen by the development co-operation division of the Department of Foreign Affairs in consultation with, say, the departments of the Taoiseach, Agriculture and Finance among others.
"This is a major part of our foreign policy now: it needs planning." The extra spending would be closely monitored: "It's serious money, it's taxpayers' money, so it will have to be fully accounted for, through the Oireachtas."
The flow of cash may be one-way but Ms O'Donnell says there are other benefits: "It will enhance our moral authority in the world; it will give us a new standing in international fora; it will give leadership to other countries. We have been huge beneficiaries from European Union structural and cohesion funds and look what it has done for us. We can afford to do it now - it is the right thing to do and there has never been a better time to do it."