The Government will meet its commitment to spend an extra £100 million on overseas aid next year in spite of the slowdown in the economy, according to the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell.
Introducing the 2000 annual report of Ireland Aid, the State's overseas development agency, Ms O'Donnell said the Government was on course to meet United Nations targets on aid spending.
This means spending will increase from £265 million this year to over £365 million next year. This fulfils the promise in the Programme for Government to increase the aid budget to 0.45 per cent of gross national product (GNP).
Further increases over the succeeding years will bring spending up to £800 million a year by 2007. This represents a figure of 0.7 per cent of GNP, which is the United Nations target for aid spending by rich countries.
Although this target has existed since 1970, only five countries have met it.
Ms O'Donnell said the flourishing performance of the economy in recent years had provided "a wonderful window of opportunity and a moral obligation" to increase aid.
The Minister said Ireland Aid had earned a worldwide reputation for aid of the highest quality since it was established in 1974. Its strengths included a "sharp and unrelenting" focus on poverty reduction and a model of aid which was framed on "respectful partnerships" in poor countries.
Yesterday she announced a package of £3.6 million in emergency aid for some of this year's "forgotten emergencies".
This money, which brings to £25 million the total amount of emergency aid disbursed this year, will go to projects in 11 countries in Central America, Africa and Asia.
In preparation for the huge increase in its budget, Ireland Aid is undergoing a review. The report of the review committee is expected to go to Cabinet before Christmas.
Some £127 million of Ireland Aid's budget last year went on so-called bilateral aid, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ethiopia is the biggest recipient of aid from Ireland, having received £16 million last year. Other large beneficiaries are Tanzania (£12.5 million), Mozambique (£11.6 million) and Uganda (£9.8 million).
Much of the remainder of the budget goes to international organisations, principally the EU, which gets almost £40 million.
The 100-page report contains 11 photographs of Ms O'Donnell and three of the Taoiseach.
