The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs has rejected allegations that the proposed White Paper on Ireland's development aid policy is a "stalling or long-fingering tactic" when it comes to reaching the UN 0.7 per cent target for aid.
Mr Conor Lenihan told the Dáil that the timetable for achieving 0.7 per cent of GDP in overseas aid would be put in place before the UN millennium project summit in September.
Sinn Féin TD Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central) said that consultations on the target were unnecessary, and the proposal was "nothing more than a cheap stalling tactic which insulted people's intelligence".
However, the Minister said it was "ignoble and wrong" of Mr Ó Snodaigh to suggest the White Paper was a stalling tactic. "However, it does not surprise me as the Sinn Féin party does not believe in including the public in its calculations, as evidenced from its record over the last 30 years."
He also denied he had criticised NGOs in a radio interview. The issue he had raised in an interview "was one of advocacy and its role", and it was not done "with the specific intention or purpose of being critical of any NGO".
However, Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman Mr Bernard Allen said "no amount of slippery talk or polished words will mask the fact that the Minister of State upset the NGOs when he implied that they could not effectively spend the money they were getting so that they would, therefore, only get what they could prove they could spend".
