THE steady increase in Irish development aid spending in recent years contrasts sharply with that of many other developed countries, according to Minister of State Ms Joan Burton.
Ms Burton, who is responsible for development aid, told a Trocaire conference yesterday that as well as the Irish funding increase, there had also been a qualitative change in Irish aid.
The increase has been from £40 million (0.16 per cent of GNP) in 1992 to £122 million (0.31 per cent of GNP) this year.
This contrasted starkly with the performance of other developed countries, she told the conference on the theme Poverty Amid Plenty.
Confidence in the role of development co-operation had ebbed in many developed countries, she said. "Development aid budgets have been decisively reduced in some countries, accompanied by melancholy references to intractable problems that cannot be resolved by throwing money away.
"At the same time political leaders in many countries have pointed to globalisation as a virtually magical panacea for our times that can make both developed countries more rich and developing countries, at the least, less poor.
She warned, however, that globalisation of the world economy could widen as well as diminish divisions.
There was now a system of "global apartheid" which led to an outflow of $500 billion of capital from the south to the north. At the same time developing countries paid debts to developed countries of over $400 billion between 1980 and 1990. This situation needed to be challenged and tackled, she said.
She said Irish aid had maintained its focus on long-term development, despite the hugely increasing demands for emergency assistance.
The expansion of the budget had allowed Ireland to designate three new "priority countries" for the receipt of aid, Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique.
There was a special budget line to assist countries such ash Rwanda which have been devastated by conflict-related emergencies.
There was a strong focus on health and education in the spending of Irish aid money; greater emphasis on assisting the productive sectors of developing countries' economies; greater collaboration with nongovernmental organisations and, all aid was given on grant terms.