Sir, - The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, in a public meeting with NGOs last January stated: "In Government, Fianna Fail will continue to treat ODA (Overseas Development Assistance) as a special priority." He pointed to the target of 0.45 per cent of ODA to GNP over the five-year period to 2002 but also went on to state: "Of course, if the rate of economic growth of the next five years broadly matches the growth of the last five, we may be able to do better than that, because we have to be prepared to share our increasing prosperity with those who are less fortunate."
At last year's launch of the Reality of Aid report, the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, said that, in Government, her party would press for the achievement (in 1997) of the 0.4 per cent interim ODA to GNP target set down in the 1993 Irish Aid Strategy Plan. Thus the leaders of the two parties in Government share a similar vision on aid levels which should now be translated into an acceleration in the growth rate of ODA.
The time could not be more ripe. The Exchequer surplus in the first nine months of 1997 was £506 million compared with £185 million in the same period last year. Estimates of economic growth for 1997 vary between seven and 10 per cent. The ESRI in its Medium Term Review forecasts significant economic growth over the period to 2003.
Trocaire urges the Minister for Finance in the forthcoming Budget to increase the rate of growth in overseas aid as a percentage of GNP to 0.5 per cent, the target annual growth rate originally set in the 1993-7 Irish Aid Strategy Plan.
All credit is due to the past two governments for increasing our aid since 1993, and for focusing it on some of the world's poorest countries. But let us not forget that at 0.31 per cent we are still less than half way to the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNP, set in 1970. No timeframe has been given for reaching this target. Setting out how and when this will be done would be a worthwhile millennium project. - Yours, etc.,
From Justin Kilcullen
Director, Trocaire, 169 Booterstown Avenue, Co. Dublin.