Separating Irish aid for overseas development from the Department of Foreign Affairs and putting it under a board representative of the social partners would be one way of involving the public in its management, the chief executive of Concern, Mr David Begg, said yesterday.
"Even applying a purely business case, how can it be justified to exclude £620 million of public expenditure from the scrutiny which attends every other sector of the economy?" he asked.
At a seminar hosted by the Labour Party on "Justice for the Developing World" in Dublin, Mr Begg said there was a moral obligation to meet the 0.7 per cent GNP for overseas aid and the Taoiseach had said this would be achieved by 2007.
Mr Begg said he calculated that the size of the Overseas Development Aid (ODA) budget would be about £620 million by 2007. They should be looking for ways to engage Irish civil society in the "ownership of Irish aid" and it was fortunate that in Ireland there was a unique model of social partnership covering every aspect of the economy in an integrated way.
Mr Begg also called for a change in the existing basis of the relationship between NGOs and the Department of Foreign Affairs. It was very unsatisfactory at present, as it was based on a supplicant/benefactor model.
Irish NGOs were considered marginal rather than integral to Irish aid. This was not, fortunately, the level of importance attributed to NGOs by the public. The NGOs were in dialogue with the Department and Minister about these matters and hopefully a new direction could be agreed, he said.