The Government is divided over the future size of Ireland's overseas aid budget following disagreements between the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Finance.
During talks last week finance officials recommended that Ireland meet its commitment to meet the UN's 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product (GNP) in overseas development aid by 2015.
This would keep Ireland in line with the rest of the EU, whose leaders agreed in Brussels last week to set 2015 as the target for all 25 member states.
However, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has insisted that the Government must advance quicker, and he is pushing for Ireland to meet the 0.7 per cent target by 2012.
Mr Ahern has also demanded that major increases should be made to the aid budget in the short-term by proposing that Ireland reach the 0.5 per cent target in two years' time.
Last year Ireland contributed 0.41 per cent, or €480 million, of its GNP to the third world, the ninth largest per capita contribution of any country.
Having faced serious criticism from non-governmental organisations, the Cabinet will discuss the issue at its meeting next week, and there are hopes that an agreement can be reached before the summer break.
The Government's aid budget, which has quadrupled since 1997, will exceed €500 million this year, and the Cabinet has already signed up to increase this figure by €65 million in 2006 and 2007.
In 2000, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the UN General Assembly, when Ireland was then seeking election to the UN Security Council, that Ireland would hit the 0.7 per cent UN target in 2007. Because of this promise, Mr Ahern is understood to be supportive of the Minister for Foreign Affairs' push for Ireland to be ahead of the EU minimum standard, sources have told The Irish Times.
While the Government has faced much domestic criticism for failing to meet the 2007 target, just five countries, mostly Scandinavian, have reached or exceeded the UN target.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party will publish a draft Bill that would require all governments by law to reach the 0.7 per cent target within two years and to keep it there.
Under the legislation, to be published on Monday, the Government would have to set up an agency known as the Development Co-operation Ireland Fund Board to administer the money.
"Since 2000 Ireland has been committed to increasing overseas development aid to 0.7 per cent of GNP by the year 2007. This commitment has been made repeatedly at a number of international fora," said Labour.
"This was a key plank in Ireland's campaign to win a seat at the UN Security Council in 2001/2002. Yet intermediate targets have already been missed, budget cuts have been made, and it is still not clear when, if ever, the commitment will be met unless all governments - regardless of political composition - are required to do so by law."
