The decentralisation of the Department of Foreign Affairs' overseas aid division, Irish Aid, may have to take place on a "phased" basis because of staffing problems, according to the Minister of State with responsibility for overseas aid, Conor Lenihan.
Speaking to The Irish Times during a three-country State tour of Africa, for which he has been accompanying President Mary McAleese, Mr Lenihan said the department hoped to have senior Irish Aid management in situ in Limerick by September.
Decentralisation from Dublin could not be completed until a legal doubt surrounding the status of contracted specialists had been lifted, he added. "We are waiting in the train station at Heuston en route for Limerick because until that legal action - which may end up in the European Court - is resolved, it will make it very difficult for us to effect that change. We have no choice but to wait."
Mr Lenihan was speaking ahead of the return to Africa on Saturday night of Mrs McAleese, who had broken away from the tour for three days to attend Charles Haughey's funeral in Dublin.
The President arrived by Government jet in the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam, and then travelled to Mozambique for the final day of her State visit there yesterday.
A crowd of 500 people gathered to welcome her to the previously war-torn province of Niassa, where the international charity Halo Trust handed over certificates proclaiming the area "mine-impact free" - thanks to landmine clearance funding from Irish Aid. Today, Mrs McAleese is back in Tanzania for the last leg of her three-country tour of the continent.
Mr Lenihan revealed that the forthcoming White Paper on overseas aid would recommend greater integration of Irish Aid within the department. "In the White Paper, and administratively within the department, we are pursuing a very strong integrationist agenda," he said, adding that he didn't believe this agenda would be undermined by the decentralisation of Irish Aid.
Such a move could be completed without either marginalising the agency, or disrupting the overseas development programme, he said, citing the example of the Revenue Commissioners which had increased its tax yields despite relocating its Collector General offices to Limerick.
Mr Lenihan disclosed that the White Paper, due to be published in September with the aim of guiding policy for the next seven to nine years, would put a new emphasis on involving the private sector in developing countries.
Ireland's traditional stance of not tying its aid to the purchase of Irish goods and services would remain, however.
In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Lenihan spoke of the people who most impressed him in the development field, citing five people in particular: Bob Geldof, Bill Clinton, economist Geoffrey Sachs, UN HIV/Aids envoy Stephen Lewis and Reuters chairman Niall Fitzgerald, who is a champion of investment in Africa.
Mr Lenihan also revealed he had differences with Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern last year over whether or not to rebrand the department's aid division, which was formerly known as Development Co-operation Ireland. While Mr Lenihan was initially "totally and utterly against a rebranding", Mr Ahern persuaded him to see the initiative as giving the programme a more public focus.
On the question of funding governments which had a record of corruption, a practice which had drawn consistent criticism from the director of Goal, John O'Shea, Mr Lenihan said he rejected a "heroes and villains" analysis. Government-to-government funding and the support of non-governmental organisations were "good in their own ways", he remarked.