Ireland's commitment to overseas aid could be compromised by the Government's decentralisation programme, Fine Gael claimed today.
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Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Bernard Allen |
Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Bernard Allen said he had received an answer to a parliamentary question indicating that only 17 per cent of staff at Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI) favoured the proposed move to Limerick and two out of 15 principal officers and senior development specialists were in favour.
"I am extremely concerned that the decision to decentralise DCI when so few are willing to move could result in a loss of expertise and valuable experience," he said.
"Just when aid spending is expanding, the Government is pursuing a decentralisation agenda which has been met with a minuscule level of interest and which, if forced through, could harm the efficiency of our overseas aid programmes," said Mr Allen, who will raise the matter in the Dáil today.
Some 123 posts are to be relocated to Limerick in the first quarter of 2007 under the decentralisation plan.
Mr Allen said the Department of Foreign Affairs has twice been warned that losing "institutional memory" through staff turnover could have a negative impact on the efficiency of Ireland's aid programmes.
Ireland's aid commitment has been the subject of controversy after it emerged that the promise made before the UN to increase spending to 0.7 per cent of GNP by 2007 would not be met.
As part of a renewed commitment to meet the target by 2012, increases of €65 million in 2006 and 2007 have been sanctioned, raising Irish spending in the area to €1.8 billion.