Irish back aid budget despite having to borrow 'every penny'

IRELAND HAS to borrow “every single penny” it spends on overseas aid and interest has to be paid on it, Minister for Trade and Development Joe Costello has said.

Nonetheless, Irish people are still supportive of the overseas aid programme, the Minister added.

Speaking at the launch of Concern Worldwide’s 1,000 Days campaign, he referred to a recent Dóchas survey that found 79 per cent of Irish people believed it was important that the Government kept its promise to meet the UN target of allocating 0.7 per cent of gross national income to overseas aid by 2015.

Ireland will spend €639 million on overseas aid this year. He emphasised that the 0.51 per cent share of the gross national income that Ireland was giving this year in overseas aid was higher than France (0.4 per cent) or Germany (0.37 per cent).

He maintained Germany was a “long way off” in terms of its aid allocation and could do better, but added: “We are in no position to lecture them at the present time.”

The Concern campaign is focused on the first 1,000 days of a child’s beginning from pregnancy to two years old. The emphasis, in particular, will be on nutrition with research showing that problems in infancy can last a lifetime.

Also speaking at the launch, Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore announced Ireland had fulfilled its commitment to allocate 20 per cent of its aid budget to alleviating hunger.

The goal was contained in the hunger taskforce report four years ago and was fulfilled on schedule.

He announced a further €8 million in funding to tackle child under-nutrition. Some of the money will go to smallholder farmers, particularly women, to help them achieve greater agricultural productivity.

Some of it will also go to the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research, which develops programmes to improve agricultural productivity and nutrition in developing countries.

Mr Gilmore said Ireland’s own famine experience had shaped the country’s values. Many had asked why the wealthy and the powerful of Victorian society had done so little to help the poor in Ireland.