'Minister should apologise for overseas aid slur'
Opposition parties today demanded a Government minister publicly apologise for questioning the integrity of overseas aid agencies.
Political rivals branded Conor Lenihan’s comments “offensive” after he stressed that value for money was a core issue when questioned on promises to meet UN targets in overseas assistance.
“The people who give money to some of these charities should look at how much is spent on advocacy as opposed to what goes directly to the Third World,” said the minister with responsibility for overseas aid.
“We are focusing on getting value for money for the tax payer. Lots of people make allegations about misappropriation in the Third World and we have to be very careful that the money we give is wisely spent.”
The comments sparked uproar amongst opposition TDs who claimed he was trying to divert attention from the Government’s apparent decision to renege on its promise to donate 0.7% GNP in overseas aid by 2007.
Labour’s foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins said Mr Lenihan had appeared to imply development aid was in some way wasted.
“Increasing public awareness of conditions in the developing world is a perfectly legitimate – indeed necessary – part of the work of NGOs like Trocaire, Concern and Oxfam,” he said.
“Without this work there would be far less public awareness of the extent of poverty and deprivation and indeed without this work it is unlikely that the Government would ever have been forced to make the commitment to meet the UN target in the first place.”
Sinn Féin spokesperson on international affairs, Aengus O Snodaigh, called on Mr Lenihan to publicly apologise for his “discourteous, combative and offensive” remarks made on RTE’s Morning Ireland programme.
“This was an outrageous and slanderous attempt to take the focus off the Government’s failure to live up to the solemn pledge it made to the worlds poorest people in 2000, again in 2002, and as recently has October 19 of this year,” he said.
“Minister Lenihan should be ashamed of himself. He should immediately retract and publicly apologise for his remarks, which could have a seriously negative impact on the work of these agencies and their ability to raise funds from the public.”
The Government has come under fierce attack since it revealed it was unlikely to meet overseas aid commitments made to the UN four years ago.
In the Book of Estimates, finance minister Brian Cowen announced that Official Development Assistance would reach €535m next year, the highest amount ever allocated in the history of the aid programme.
But even by increasing Ireland’s allocation by an additional €65m in 2006, and the same again in 2007, it is unlikely to meet the target.
Mr Lenihan said that while the Government was not in line to achieve its goal, it was certainly heading towards it.
He said the Taoiseach had set a “very ambitious” target but Ireland was still way ahead of the European average.
