OVERSEAS AID:SEVERE CUTS to the overseas aid budget mean the Government has reneged on its international commitments to the developing world, aid agencies have said.
Responding angrily to the latest cut of €100 announced in this week’s Budget, Dóchas, an umbrella group representing 39 organisations in the sector, insisted that lives would be lost and the Government’s reputation damaged as a result.
It 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, as they did for the income levy on the low paid,” he said.
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 GNP 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.
