Irish Aid funding falls by one fifth

Severe cuts to the overseas aid budget mean the Government has reneged on its commitments to the developing world out of political expediency, aid agencies said today.

Responding angrily to the latest cut of €100 million announced in yesterday’s budget, Dóchas, an umbrella group representing 40 organisations in the sector, insisted that lives would be lost and the Government’s reputation damaged as a result.

Yesterday’s announcement was the fourth cut to the aid budget since June 2008 and means funding for Irish Aid has fallen by €195 million, or almost 22 per cent of the total, since last summer.

Justin Kilcullen, director of Trócaire, said the Government had twice affirmed its support for developing countries before the UN General Assembly, but that it had reneged on that promise “out of simple political expediency.”

“The people of the developing world are not here to march on the streets. There will be no Molesworth Street full of 10,000 people from Africa, Asia and Latin America, demanding that the Government reverse its decision, as they did for the medical card holders, [and] as they did for the income levy on the low paid,” he said.

“We need to give a very clear message to the government. Just because people in Africa cannot get over here and march on the streets and protest vehemently at the way promises to them have been carelessly thrown aside, that we will not stand for it any more.”

He said the sector had reacted with restraint to recent cuts, but that yesterday’s “shameless” reduction marked a watershed. “We insist that this is the bottom now. We need a clear commitment from Government that there will be no more cuts, that 0.48 per cent is a step too far, and that we will hold it there and build it up again,” he added.

Helen Keogh, chair of Dóchas and chief executive of World Vision Ireland, said Ireland’s overseas aid programme was roundly admired and provided the country with influence and access on the world stage.

“Overseas aid is not just charity, to be turned on when Ireland is feeling generous and then turned off when we are feeling the pinch,” she said. “Rather, our aid is a practical expression of a deep and lasting commitment that we have as a nation, to fight injustice, oppression and poverty wherever it exists. In times of crisis we need this more than ever.”

Connell Foley, director of strategy at Concern, called on the Government to provide a clear roadmap setting out how it would fulfil its promise of spending 0.7 per cent of GDP on overseas aid by 2012. The proportion spent on aid has reduced from 0.58 per cent to 0.48 per cent in the past year.

“We agree that the budget needs to be fair and needs to look at poverty issues in Ireland, but the scale and severity of poverty in the developing world is completely different,” he said.

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

But they insisted the Government was committed to resuming the expansion of the 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.