SPENDING ON Ireland's Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) programme has been increased by 15 per cent on last year's figure, bringing the total to £122 million.
This brings ODA spending to 0.31 per cent of GNP, the highest ever Irish percentage, and for the first time above the European Union average. Last year's figure was £106 million or 0.29 per cent of GNP.
ODA spending as a percentage of GNP has been rising steadily from a low of 0.16 per cent in 1992. But the increases in the percentage of GNP spent on ODA are considerably lower than the annual .05 per cent promised in the 1993 and 1994 government programmes. This Government and its predecessor said that such .05 per cent annual increases would be implemented until the State reached the United Nations recommended contribution of 0.7 per cent of GNP.
Government spokesmen say the Irish percentage increases over the past few years would have been much more dramatic were it not that GNP itself is growing so quickly. Ireland now has the fastest growth in ODA spending in the Organisation for Economic Co operation and Development, according to the Minister of State to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton.
"We spent £40 million in 1992. Now it's £122 million. I'm pretty pleased with the figure," she said yesterday.
According to Ms Burton, the increased allocation will allow for a significant increase in the funding of Irish aid programmes in Rwanda, making it effectively a "priority country" for Irish funding. Irish Aid programmes in Uganda would be strengthened, new projects would be established in Malawi for the first time and projects would be established in Vietnam, she said.