The Taoiseach and Tánaiste appeared to be at odds last night in the long-running controversy about overseas development assistance. As Mr Ahern arrived in New York to announce a new target date for increasing development aid, widely expected to be 2012, back home Ms Harney was indicating a strong preference for 2010, write Deaglán de Bréadún in New York and Liam Reid
As an EU member state, Ireland is already obliged to allocate 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product to overseas aid by 2015. However, it is generally accepted that Mr Ahern will tonight tell the World Summit in New York that Ireland is going to reach the 0.7 per cent target set by the UN within a shorter period, probably by 2012.
The issue has been a source of continuing controversy since the Government abandoned its original commitment to reach the UN target by 2007. This pledge was given by Mr Ahern in a speech to the UN Millennium Summit in New York five years ago when Ireland was campaigning for a seat on the Security Council.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who arrived in New York on Sunday, refused to comment on speculation about a new target date, but unofficial sources are confident that the new schedule for increased aid will specify a date, at or neat 2012.
Back in Ireland, the Tánaiste and the Progressive Democrats indicated that they had favoured an earlier date than 2012. Speaking to journalists yesterday, Ms Mary Harney said her parliamentary party "favours the 2010 target date for achieving the 0.7 per cent".
She refused to say what the new target was, saying it was a matter for the Taoiseach to announce today, but said she also welcomed a new target date being set as ending uncertainty over the issue.
Sources close to Ms Harney played down any suggestion of a rift between Government parties on the new aid target date, saying there had been "a discussion at Government and we have agreed on a new target".
Former minister of state for overseas development Liz O'Donnell, who has been highly critical of the decision to renege on the 2007 deadline, also told The Irish Times that she hoped the new target date would be 2010, saying it was "in line with the decision of the G8 to double aid by 2010".
The main reason for the official silence over the Taoiseach's announcement was said to be Mr Ahern's desire to achieve maximum impact with his summit speech. In setting any new target, he may qualify it by referring to the fact that the Government's term of office expires in 2007.
The Taoiseach may indicate the new position at a press conference in New York this evening. Reports that Minister for Finance Brian Cowen was obstructing a shorter time limit than the one set by the EU were firmly denied by authoritative sources, who said his main concern was that whatever target was set this time should be "achievable".
Trócaire director Justin Kilcullen said a target date of 2010 would show the Government was serious about helping to meet the UN's Millennium Development Goals on reducing poverty and disease. "They [the Government] would have a fantastic credibility if they do that and they can continue to take a leadership position on development issues," he said.
Speaking to The Irish Times in New York, former president Mary Robinson expressed her hope that Mr Ahern would commit the Government to a significantly-earlier target date than the one set by the EU, preferably 2010.
"I hope that what he will do is sufficient to capture that sense of Ireland's role in the world that he captured when he made that commitment in the year 2000. If it's too little, it's not going to recapture that spirit of what Ireland can do," she said.
"Ireland should do all that is possible and I think the Taoiseach will get support from many people who are by no means well-off. There is an identification: we know we have to bridge those gaps and we are proud of what Ireland does and what Concern, Trócaire, Goal and the churches are all doing in developing countries."