Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has said Ireland's new commitment to achieving the development aid target of 0.7 per cent of GNP by 2012 was "demanding but achievable".
In his first comments on overseas aid since Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's announcement of the new date in New York a fortnight ago, Mr Cowen said the new commitment would require very significant financial commitments by the Irish Government.
He also said Ireland would be willing to pay its share of the cost of the recent decision by the G8 countries to cancel the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank debt owed by a group of the world's poorest countries.
Mr Cowen, who was speaking at the International Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting in Washington on Sunday, said the agreement "represents very significant progress towards solving the so far intractable problem of third world debt".
He said the cancellation of third world debt had been Government policy since 2002, and he welcomed the fact it had become international policy.
He said the Government was also fully committed to achieving the 0.7 per cent target for overseas aid, which the Taoiseach had originally promised five years ago would be reached by 2007, but which was abandoned last year.
"This will be achieved in 2012, some three years earlier than the agreed EU target date of 2015," he said. "Given current economic projections, this will mean a tripling of Ireland's ODA (overseas development aid) above current levels.
"This commitment is very demanding. But my Government believes that it is achievable."
He said that while development aid was important, trade reform was "the key to underpinning growth" and added that an international agreement on trade to assist developing countries was "within our grasp".
Mr Cowen said that developing countries also had responsibilities.