Sir, - The story is told that when Margaret Thatcher became British prime minister, she asked how much Britain was giving in overseas aid and when told, said: "Halve that immediately." She then asked how much Britain was making from overseas aid and said: "Double that immediately."
The story is probably not apocryphal: British aid to the Third World was cut severely during Mrs Thatcher's reign and it was during that same reign that the scandal of the dam for tanks was exposed: British aid was given for the building of a dam in a former colony in Asia in exchange for the buying of British tanks. That overseas aid never really went overseas. As Mrs Thatcher would probably say, "Business as usual."
We in Aid Watch International note the denials from Mr John O'Donoghue and Ms Liz O'Donnell (The Irish Times, August 14th) that Irish government aid is being used to pay the Nigerian government to allow failed Nigerian asylum-seekers to be returned.
It is unfortunate that both Ministers should find themselves in a situation where they have to protest their innocence so much. We must ensure that the good nature of Irish people as reflected in our long history of overseas development work is not tarnished by allegations of misdirected aid.
We must also ensure that Ireland Aid, with its promised £800 million a year, is not open to being used as a slush fund for non-aid related causes, and that responsible Ministers are not put into positions of conflict regarding overseas spending.
Aid Watch International recently made a submission to the Review Group on Ireland Aid which should help to remove the Ministers from any such conflicts. We recommended that Ireland Aid be established as an executive agency separate from the Department of Foreign Affairs with its own board and management. We also recommended that an Irish Aid Council be established to further develop and articulate Irish aid policies laid down by the Government.
This council, served by a small secretariat, would also be responsible for evaluating the implementation of the aid policies by the executive agency and would have an adversarial and inspectorial relationship with the executive agency. All such policies and evaluations would be made public and open to examination.
We also recommended that an aid ombudsperson be appointed to deal with issues of unfairness which might arise in the Irish aid business.
We want these radical structures established to protect the poverty-focused policies and practices of Irish aid to the developing world. We want the very best available people on the council, giving of their experience, learning and integrity. We also want the best available people on the board and management of the executive agency.
Despite the perennial criticisms of the management of Irish aid by the development assistance committee of the OECD, the best available people cannot be recruited to manage Irish governmental aid because they are not (Diplomatic Corps) civil servants. This is fundamentally wrong.
We have confidence in the Review Group of Ireland Aid. It is being chaired by Ms O'Donnell and we believe that each and every member is an estimable person. While we are aware that the overall composition of the group could have been more balanced in terms of gender, overseas experience, background and affiliation, we believe that there is sufficient capacity in the group to recommend the establishment of transparent structures, thereby helping to protect a fine Minister and her colleagues from any innuendos. Ireland must ensure that its programme of aid aimed at addressing the needs of people in developing countries is not compromised by political expediency in Ireland or abroad.
We would much prefer that Irish governmental aid be kept at 800 million pence and well protected by sound and transparent structures, than the promised £800 million without such structures and transparency. - Yours, etc.,
Martin McCormack, Secretary, Aid Watch International, Ballinea, Mullingar, Co Westmeath.