Concern and Trócaire have welcomed the Taoiseach's announcement last night that 2012 will be the target date for contributing 0.7 per cent of Ireland's GNP towards Overseas Development Aid (ODA).
Concern deputy chief executive Paddy Maguinness said in New York: "This announcement is a victory for the people who are living in grinding poverty in the developing world and the people of Ireland who put pressure on the Government to deliver this pledge."
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern addresses delegates at the UN World Summit
Trócaire director Justin Kilcullen said: "We had hoped for 0.7 per cent by 2010 but we've been promised 0.6 by 2010 and 0.7 by 2012 and that' s a very positive outcome."
Mr Ahern revealed 2012 as the Government's new target date during his address to the UN summit of world leaders in New York last night.
The Taoiseach promised five years ago that this target would be met by 2007, but he has now postponed achieving this for another five years. The Government was criticised by Opposition parties and NGOs for breaking this commitment.
Mr Ahern pledged at a meeting of world leaders at the UN five years ago that Ireland would reach the 0.7 per cent target by 2007. The promise helped Ireland top the poll in elections to the Security Council, but later there was widespread criticism when the Government abandoned the deadline, pleading changed economic circumstances and the impact of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman, Bernard Allen, described that announcement as a "betrayal of the world's hungry and poor".
However, the new target date means Ireland should still reach the quota three years earlier than the agreed target date for the EU.
During his address Mr Ahern said: "It is an affront to our common humanity, five years after the Millennium Summit, that 30,000 children die each day from easily preventable diseases.
"Ireland is not a silent witness to this continuing tragedy," the Taoiseach said.
"By committing to the 0.7 per cent target Ireland will spend up to €8 billion helping to tackle poverty and alleviate poverty in some of the world's poorest countries."
"By any standards this is a huge commitment on behalf of the Irish people," he added.
Mr Ahern said from next year spending on combating HIV/Aids, TB and malaria will be doubled to €100 million per year.
Although while Irish aid would remain "untied", the Taoiseach said that developing countries "must also improve governance, increase transparency and accountability and combat corruption".
Speaking about the role of the United Nations Mr Ahern said it was no exception in having to adjust to new realities caused by globalisation.
"We all know that the United Nations must change. But so too must our collective approach to it. Its failures are mainly the result of our failures."
He said future generations would not be forgiving if the world leaders gathered at this summit "without committing ourselves never to allow events such as those that took place in Rwanda and Srebrenica to happen again."
He called on the UN to become more efficient in its management with full accountability from its agencies and staff.
"We must give the secretary-general the authority and flexibility that he needs to manage the organisation and to devote resources to where they are most needed. It is not fair to deny him this and then to blame him when things go wrong."