JOHN O'SHEA,
Madam, - President Bush's Millennium Challenge Corporation marks a change of course for US foreign aid policy and is an initiative to be welcomed.
Not only is he making an extra $5 billion available annually for overseas aid but, more importantly, he has also identified one of the biggest impediments to aid - corruption - and built in conditions to ensure that recipient governments stamp it out.
He is saying that unless the government of an applicant country does something serious to tackle corruption and adopts sound fiscal policies, they will get no money. That is a policy that should be adopted by all countries, including Ireland, which offer assistance to developing countries.
I am delighted also to see that, in his announcement of the new initiative, President Bush extols the virtues of NGOs. He says that where the government is suspected of corruption, the US will deal with the NGOs instead.
This is another lead that the Irish government should follow. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN O'SHEA, GOAL, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.