Madam, - I am fed up reading John O'Shea's inaccurate and unfair caricature of Ireland's overseas aid programme ("Cowen must usher in whole new mindset on Third World aid", Opinion Analysis, May 12th).
Ireland does not prop up any governments, good bad or indifferent. Where bilateral aid - ie, direct government to government aid - is given, it is to assist a specific programme, usually in health, education or public sanitation. Training and capacity-building is always a central part of any programme.
The programmes are agreed in advance, targets are set and the spending of the money is monitored by Irish Aid personnel. No money is handed, directly or indirectly, to any government minister.
The purpose of development aid is to help underdeveloped countries become capable of looking after themselves. Most African countries are not short of resources. What they are short of is stable, acceptable government, credible policies and the administrative capacity to implement them. If this is where the problem lies, then surely this is where we should concentrate our efforts. - Yours, etc,
JOE MANNING, Sierra Leone Honorary Consul to Ireland. Bagenalstown, Co Carlow.
Madam, - My personal experience over many years working in Africa leads me to support John O'Shea's call for a review of Irish aid to third world countries.
President Banda of Malawi used to take a plane-load of his government on shopping trips to London with £20,000 shopping money for each. President Mobuto of Zaire hired Concorde to take his family on holiday. More recently, ex-president Chiluba of Zambia - whom I knew personally as a highly intelligent and gifted man - fulfilled his pre-election slogan that "there is no such thing as an honest politician" when he was found guilty in the UK courts of stealing $40 million from his country. Last week Chiluba assets worth $60 million were seized by the present Zambian government.
In the meantime, Irish missionary organisations are building and staffing hospitals, clinics and schools, providing numerous other community services and training local people to run them on severely limited budgets for the people who actually need them. This proven organisational infrastructure is already in place but is virtually sidelined by our government which gives them only a pittance compared with the amounts given directly to governments that are widely known to be corrupt.
My wife and I are engaged in a personal direct aid project for a school in Tanzania - which has recently sacked ministers in connection with a large water-supply scandal - because we know our efforts will benefit the children and their families and will not be hijacked by unscrupulous politicians.
By all means, work with governments, but not by blindly sending huge sums of taxpayers' money into an apparently bottomless void. With proper organisation, management, accountability and local training, Irish Aid can make a real difference for the people who need and deserve it. - Yours, etc,
TOM MAC MAHON, Mount Auburn, Killiney, Co Dublin.