Burton seeks cross-party support for overseas aid

THE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton, has appealed for all-party commitment to Irish aid, while admitting that the Government's committed increase is still "a good bit short" of the United Nations target.

In what she termed a "pre-election" plea, Ms Burton, who is responsible for overseas aid, said development could only bear fruit if there was a long-term commitment of resources.

"Our programmes cannot operate fully if funding is provided on a stop-start fashion. We need to be in there for the long haul, and that means decades of commitment," Ms Burton said when she published the annual Irish Aid report at Iveagh House, Dublin, yesterday.

"I want the progress made in the past few years to be ring-fenced throughout the next Dail, at least right up to the year 2000." Ireland had benefited itself from substantial European transfers, she added.

Ireland would continue to make significant increases in the overseas development assistance (ODA) budget in the coming years, she said. The contribution was 0.28 per cent of GNP in 1995, and may increase to 0.32 per cent this year.

Difficulties in reaching the UN target have largely been due to the rapid growth of the economy, and consequent GNP, according to her Department.

Stressing the need to focus on quality, as well as quantity the Minister said such all-party support for the programme could release valuable resources for evaluation. The Government wanted to "work with poor people" and "use aid to assist poor people", but sometimes other governments took a different view of how money should be spent. There was, therefore a "continuing discussion, critique and evaluation", she said.

Some £96.82 million was spent on the Irish aid programme last year, compared to £75.2 million in 1994, according to the report, which notes that Ireland is one of the few countries to increase its ODA contribution.

The changing emphasis in the Irish programme is reflected in Ethiopia, which is one of the new priority areas. Here poverty is addressed at the level of basic needs, with support for primary education, community healthcare, agriculture and conservation, small-scale water supply, labour-intensive road improvement and capacity building. Measures to enhance the position of women are an integral part of the programme.

The report also confirms the sharp increase in aid to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), rising from £3.4 million (8 per cent of total overseas development assistance) in 1992 to £11.6 million (12 per cent of ODA) in 1995.

Last year £5.65 million in emergency humanitarian assistance was disbursed to help provide food, shelter, water and medical supplies to vulnerable people and refugees, with the focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Great Lakes region of Africa. An additional £3.6 million was spent on rehabilitation programmes in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mozambique, Somalia and Angola.

The Minister said that both the Government and EU partners had "very serious concerns" about the deteriorating situation in eastern Zaire and the Great Lakes region. The Government has been consulting the other EU members to establish what steps can be taken to resolve the crisis. The Rwandan Foreign Minister is due in Dublin today.