Sir, - The Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, in preparing his second Budget, as usual faces a myriad of competing demands. At the same time he has a responsibility to meet the Government's stated commitments to certain areas of spending. Just last week his colleague Liz O'Donnell, Minister of State with responsibility for development co-operation, reiterated this Government's commitment to meeting its 0.45 per cent aid to GNP target by the year 2002. At present the Government has a long way to go as the current level of development aid is just 0.32 per cent of GNP.
Irish aid targets some of the poorest countries in Africa, including Tanzania, Ethiopia and Zambia. These countries are classified by the UN as "low development countries" and face severe social problems as a result of human deprivation. For example, in Tanzania 40 per cent of people die before the age of 35 and in Ethiopia 100,000 children die annually from preventable diseases.
In the light of this reality it would be totally unacceptable if the Government was to cut back on its commitments to development aid in the forthcoming Budget. Throughout the 1980s we were told that development aid had to be trimmed because of our economic difficulties. It would indeed be ironic if we are now to be told that because of our rapid economic growth such aid commitments have to be reneged on.
Given this, Trocaire urges Mr McCreevy to increase Irish aid as a percentage of GNP to 0.36 per cent in 1999, and thereafter to set out a growth path for reaching the Government's own 0.45 per cent target by 2002. Earlier this year the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, pointed out that rather than judging a country's wealth by what it has, a more appropriate approach is to measure this by what it gives. Let us not be found wanting now as so many depend on Ireland's commitment to overcoming world poverty. - Yours, etc., Justin Kilcullen, Director,
Trocaire, Blackrock, Co Dublin.