Ireland's largest Third World aid agency, Concern, has criticised the Department of Foreign Affairs over its treatment of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the allocation of the Government's aid budget.

Concern - it has a £30 million turnover and employs 100 Irish and 2,000 local staff in Third World countries - says NGOs are regarded as "marginal" to the operations of Irish Aid, which is run by the Department.

Concern receives £3 million or 1.6 per cent of Irish Aid's overall budget of £178 million, the agency points out in a submission to the Department of Finance.

It accuses Department of Foreign Affairs officials of "influencing" comments which appeared last year in the OECD's review of Irish Aid which suggested that NGOs were not an effective channel for increased levels of Irish aid going to developing countries. The OECD review gave Irish Aid programmes a high rating but suggested more back-up staff to improve co-ordination from Dublin.

The Department has firmly rejected the agency's criticisms. NGOs met OECD officials twice during their review and had "ample opportunity" to put across their views, an Irish Aid spokesman told The Irish Times.

In addition, the State gives a higher proportion of its official aid to NGOs than any other OECD state, he said.

According to Concern, the "apparent official judgment" on NGOs is not mirrored in the attitude of the Irish public. It points out that in 1997 the Irish NGOs spent £41 million on grants, the third highest in the OECD proportionate to GNP. This, it claims, is a reflection of the strong public support for the work of Irish agencies.

Concern also alleges the Government has a "very unbalanced approach to disaster relief". The Government gave £555,000 in relief to Central America after Hurricane Mitch, a level of support the agency found "disproportionate" when compared to the Government's response to flooding in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi floods affected 35 million; the Central American disaster "only" one million.

However, the Irish Aid spokesman said Hurricane Mitch and its aftermath was "an exceptional disaster". The choice of channels for aid depended on Irish Aid's capacity in a region.