Sir, - I find it shocking that the Irish Government, in anticipation of a record Budget surplus, should refuse an increase in foreign aid (which is less than half of the UN target anyway).
On the one hand it is effectively trying to gerrymander the Republic to get the maximum of European money from European taxpayers, while on the other it offers a tight fist to the much worse off. In face of record economic growth and a roaring Celtic tiger it could surely do better.
It isn't long since Bob Geldof was declared another saint in this land of saints and scholars for setting up Band Aid. Is that all gone and forgotten? - Yours, etc., Willi Kiefel,
Parkview Drive, Tuam, Co Galway.