Madam, - Bob Geldof has said that it amounted to "moral corruption" for the Government to have reneged on the Taoiseach's solemn commitment at the UN to raise Ireland's aid contribution to 0.7 per cent of GDP within a particular time. However, Mr Ahern's words merely looked and sounded like a solemn commitment. As most Irish voters could have told the aid-dependent destitute multitudes of the world, the Taoiseach was merely uttering an election promise, nothing more.
At the time, the Government had decided for rather opaque reasons to seek a seat on the UN Security Council, and it was all hands to the pumps for the campaign. A solemn commitment on aid from the Taoiseach would probably have impressed countries considering voting for Ireland.
Ireland won its two-year term on the council and so the solemn commitment, like any other election promise, could be safely ditched.
Yet, while the poor of the world are certainly left the worse off by this broken promise, it is unclear how much mankind benefited from Ireland's membership of the Security Council. - Yours, etc,
HUGO BRADY BROWN, Stratford-on-Slaney, Co Wicklow.