The Minister of State responsible for development aid, Ms Liz O'Donnell, has strongly defended the policy of giving aid directly to African governments. This practice was criticised recently by the aid agency, GOAL.
Ms O'Donnell yesterday accused GOAL director Mr John O'Shea of denigrating the State's aid programme "to maximise GOAL's take from the aid provision". She said GOAL's approach was "predominantly a welfare one focused on the symptoms, not the causes, of poverty".
Mr O'Shea has made several public statements accusing the Government of funding corrupt regimes. He has called for this money to be given to organisations such as GOAL to enable them work in these countries.
However, at a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ms O'Donnell yesterday rejected suggestions that taxpayers' money could be diverted by corrupt regimes. She maintained that Government funding to these states was not capable of being "diverted to nefarious purposes". It was tied to local funding and spent on specific projects as part of an agreed programme.
The six countries to which Ireland gave aid were "a soft target where issues can be found, to present as alleged evidence, that the Irish programme is supporting corrupt administrations and leaders".
She said GOAL's overall premise was that aid should go in large measure to NGOs and Irish missionaries.
"However, if GOAL's thesis was taken to its logical conclusion, donor countries like Ireland would be writing off Africa and its fledgling and fallible democracies as incapable of self-government and only deserving of a post-colonial welfare model of aid, which is deeply patronising and ultimately unsustainable," she said.