Sir, - In a recent letter to The Irish Times Dr Anthony Clare was at variance with views about Development expressed by professional Development Workers overseas in a Comhlamh TV Programme and also with Nuala O'Faolain's article on the same theme (April 13th). Likewise, Dr Anthony Clare was at variance with an article which appeared in a Supplement on Development Aid (Nov, 13th, 1996) and on the topic of the inadequate training of Irish Development Workers for Overseas assignments (Sunday Independent). My concern is to know who exactly does Dr Anthony Clare represent when he writes after his signature to The Irish Times letter, "Chairman, APSO". Does Dr Clare express the views of the whole APSO Management Staff in Dublin, or the views of the APSO Board, or his own personal views as the Chairman of that Board?
I feel that this question is an important one because APSO is the Government Agency that is directly responsible to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and uses Irish taxpayers money to rep resent Ireland in the poor countries. We who are professional development workers owe our loyalty to APSO and Ireland. We must do all that we can to ensure that Irish aid is as good as we can make it.
The present situation is not good. Ireland has fallen into the trap of expansionism and empire building. Development workers who live close to the recipients of aid and see a lot of the damage aid has done, are at pains for many years to alert APSO and DFA to these problems. APSO management staff in Dublin have been made very aware of these problems. The promised changes are far from taking place yet because a participative approach in the Third World entails structural changes in Ireland that have not even been catered for in the new DFA White Paper on Foreign Policy (1996).
When Anthony Clare wrote, a genuinely collaborative approach to the provision of development aid is already happening" was he, on behalf of APSO, baking it clear that hoped for improvements will not in fact take place? Why is Anthony Clare so anxious to neutralise the deep concerns that come from the development professionals experience in the field? Unless all of us in APSO work together, how can we hope to understand and help those in the Third World and how can we respond to the trust that the Irish people have in our work on their behalf? - Mise le meas,
Seapoint Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.