Africa: Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has defended the Government's decision to renege on its overseas development aid commitments amid renewed criticism from Africa campaigner Bob Geldof.
Mr Cowen insisted the Government was committed to achieving the United Nations target of giving 0.7 per cent of GNP to aid. However, he declined to set a new date for meeting this goal after last year announcing - ahead of his first budget as Minister for Finance - that the Government's 2007 target date would not be met.
Speaking in London yesterday at the publication of the report of the British government's Commission for Africa, Geldof said Ireland's stance was "shameful" and "a cop-out".
"Now that we're well off please let's spare us going into this economic trickery, these false, broken promises. It ill becomes us.
"We have a specific role to play within Europe. We are a serious voice, a dynamic economy, a people who have moved out beyond Africa and the rest of the world. Go back to what we said. Let's not break our word."
With British prime minister Tony Blair beside him, Geldof said: "In a world where prosperity is increasing and more people are sharing each year in its growing wealth, it is an obscenity that should haunt our daily thoughts that four million children will die in Africa this year before their fifth birthday."
And while Mr Blair might have winced at his choice of language, there was no dissent when Geldof said that it would cost the United States "f*** all" to relieve Africa's poverty.
The singer and campaigner said that when he heard members of non-governmental organisations planning their strategy for the forthcoming Gleneagles, Scotland, meeting of the G8 group of industrialised countries, to be hosted by Mr Blair, his reaction was: "F*** Gleneagles. Do you know how much it costs? Half a stick of chewing gum for each citizen of the G8 countries."
And he urged Mr Blair to "ring up" President Bush and say, "Do this George, do this for me, it's going to cost you f*** all - do it for me."
Rejecting Geldof's criticisms, Mr Cowen said: "Ireland is one of the world's leading aid donors on a per capita basis. We are currently in eighth place among OECD member states and our performance is well above the EU average."
Ireland was "unique among donors" in never tying its aid, Mr Cowen continued. "Ireland was the first donor to support the objective of total debt cancellation for heavily indebted poor countries."
But Jean Somers, co-ordinator of the Debt and Development Coalition, said the Government had "lost credibility by dropping their aid target. Their calling for 100 per cent debt cancellation has been tarnished by that."
The response from many Africans to the plan was, "We've heard it all before."
"This whole effort is a slap in the face of Africa," said Pete Ondeng, head of a private body mobilising resources for a home-grown African economic plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), launched in 2001. "What is coming out of the report is not surprising because there is nothing you can tell me that hasn't been thought through before in terms of the problems," he told reporters in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
While Africans support the calls for the rich world to rewrite trade rules to help millions of poor farmers, the real test will be whether the European Union and G8 group of rich nations adopt the plan.