A total of €675 million has been allocated to overseas development aid for 2006 in the latest spending estimates.
This represents 0.47 per cent of GNP, but is well below the UN target of 0.7 per cent which the Government originally pledged to achieve by 2007 but rescheduled to 2012 last September.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the allocation puts Ireland "firmly on the road" to meeting the UN target for spending in 2012.
Mr Ahern said the allocation was a substantial increase on 2005 which was €545 million and represented €160 for every man, woman and child in the State.
The estimates provided €12 million in funding to support emigrants in 2006 - an increase of 45 per cent on 2005 and is twelve times greater than the 1997 allocation.
Mr Ahern said: "The substantially increased allocation reflects, in the clearest possible way, the strength of the Government's continuing commitment to our emigrant communities."
He said the funding will - in large part - go to groups providing "front line services" to emigrant communities in Britain.
There will also be substantial increases for emigrant groups providing similar services in the United States and Australia.