Madam, - Dan McLaughlin writes that "Live 8 is over, the G8 summiteers have gone from Gleneagles and the letter writers in The Irish Times have moved on from 'Make Poverty History' " (Opinion & Analysis July 18th).
Perhaps the newsworthiness of the story has diminished since its height over the week of the Gleneagles summit. However, the problems and the search for solutions are ongoing for those living in abject poverty in Africa, for those working on the ground to help improve their condition, for those campaigning for a fairer global order and for ordinary people trying to help in whatever small way they can.
To say that the expectations of all of these people was "wildly out of line with reality" does a massive disservice to the people of Ireland, never mind the rest of the world, who have come out in their droves to support the global campaign, and to the governments and world leaders who have worked so hard to bring along the more dubious of their peers.
No one, even those with just a basic understanding of the issues, would deny that increasing aid alone will not solve the problem, and that this has to be combined with fairer trade, better governance and debt reduction. This is the central argument of Tony Blair and Bob Geldof's Commission for Africa Report. It is very condescending of Dr McLaughlin to assume that supporters of the Make Poverty History campaign ever thought that overseas aid alone was a solution.
The fact is that the Irish Government has given a commitment to the UN to increase its spending on overseas aid to 0.7 per cent of GDP. This increase is a crucial part of a very detailed plan, which takes account of a myriad of complexities, to lift Africa off its knees and stop the needless and shameful killing of millions of people by poverty.
Dan McLaughlin seems to be suggesting that there is no conceivable way of finding the €1 billion per year necessary to fulfil our commitment on overseas aid. Advocates of the Make Poverty History campaign have never tried to dupe anybody by denying that the money needed to increase aid will have to be found, and there may well have to be some sacrifice made. That does not mean that it should not happen.
Nor does it mean that the ordinary taxpayer will have the shoulder the burden alone. Governments can be very imaginative when it comes to creating tax breaks and allowances. It is time now to use that imagination to create a realistic and sustainable source of additional revenue to pay €1 billion in overseas aid year on year.- Yours, etc,
HELEN KEOGH, Chief Executive, World Vision Ireland, Dublin 6.
Madam, - Dan McLaughlin asks if people are ready to pay for achieving Ireland's overseas development aid target of 0.7 per cent of GNP. He concludes that anyone proposing additional resources for aid should spell out how it will be funded.
The proposal was made by the Taoiseach. He promised the General Assembly of the United Nations five years ago that Ireland would reach that target by 2007. Presumably Mr Ahern would not have given such a pledge, on behalf of all of us, if his advisers had not told him he was in a position to do so. - Yours, etc,
ADRIAN HORSMAN, Communications and Media Manager, Christian Aid Ireland, Clanwilliam Terrace, Dublin 2.