The Government will not meet its revised Third World aid target by 2007, said Dóchas, the umbrella group for the country's non-governmental organisations.
Last week, the Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen, acknowledged that the Government would not meet its 2000 pledge to the United Nations to give 0.7 per cent of gross national product to developing countries by 2007.
However, he said overseas development aid should, on present calculations, reach 0.5 per cent of GNP by 2007, since €60 million would be added to the budget this year, followed by €65 million in 2006 and 2007.
Dóchas, however, calculates that by 2007 the Government is likely to achieve only 0.44 per cent of GNP by 2007, less than halfway to reaching their new plan of 0.5 per cent of GNP and also less than was promised for 2002. A Department of Finance spokesman said: "We are this year at 0.4 per cent of GNP; we are likely to be approaching 0.5 per cent in 2007 based on published estimates; the EU average is 0.35 per cent.
"We are not in a position, at this stage, to confirm GNP figures which will be published on Budget day," he said.
A spokesman for Development Co-operation Ireland, the aid division of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said: "We are hoping this package of increases will make a significant impact towards the UN target. However, we don't know what Ireland's GNP will be three years from now and it is very difficult to predict."
However, Dóchas director Mr Hans Zomer said: "Not only has the Government broken its promise to the poorest countries but it is now putting out misleading figures regarding what little increases it is going to achieve. The Government must now explain how this came about."
Meanwhile, the Tánaiste has said that the UN pledge had to be dropped because of "competing" domestic demands, including the need to improve disability services. She faced criticism in the Dáil yesterday after fellow Progressive Democrats TD and former minister of state for foreign affairs Ms Liz O'Donnell said the Government had "broken a promise to the world's poor".
Responding to Green Party leader Mr Trevor Sargent Ms Harney said: "Unfortunately, there are many competing demands, particularly in the area of disability in which the Government has had to deliver significant increases in funding." Later, she told Green Party TD Mr Dan Boyle that she accepted the Government would not meet the pledge to donate 0.7 per cent of GNP by 2007.
"The promise will not be broken but the timeframe will change," said the Tánaiste, who reminded TDs that the Republic would give €1.8 billion to the Third World over the next three years. She said it was clear that the Development Co-operation needed guarantees about funding for a number of years so it could build up services.