The Government is to cut its allocation for overseas aid by over €40 million this year, far more than was originally anticipated.
In June, it was learned that €32 million was being taken off the aid budget as part of a round of Government cutbacks. However, The Irish Times has learned that this relates only to the part of the aid budget that comes from the Department of Foreign Affairs.
A further €8 to €10 million is being cut from the rest of the aid budget, which is funded by other Government departments. At no time since June has any Government representative clarified the extent of the cutback. Aid agencies say they believed €32 million was the total amount involved.
Last night, a spokesman for the Minister of State for Development Co-operation, Mr Tom Kitt, said the Department of Foreign Affairs would not be aware of cuts in any other departments at this stage.
Mr Kitt is currently visiting Irish aid projects in Zambia. However, Labour last night accused the Government of dishonesty and hypocrisy for failing to reveal the full amount being cut.
"A cut of €32 million in overseas development aid was bad enough, but to find there is another €10 million involved is really shocking," said the party's spokesman on international affairs, Mr Michael D. Higgins.
"It says much about the ethics of this government that one of the first targets of Minister McCreevy's knife are the poor and hungry of the developing world."
News of the cut will prove embarrassing for the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who travels to Johannesburg next Tuesday to attend the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development. Mr Ahern is due to launch a major new initiative on HIV/AIDS during his 24-hour stay in South Africa.
The Taoiseach and his ministers have promised repeatedly to increase aid to the UN target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product by 2007. Government sources point out that spending on aid is still increasing, in money terms. An extra €100 million is available this year, even after the reductions.
The extra cut was discovered by Prof Helen O'Neill of UCD's Development Studies Centre during an analysis of the aid budget.
