Christian Aid: Govt has broken Budget promise
Christian Aid tonight hit out at the Budget unveiled by the Minister for Finance Brian Cowen.
The relief group said the Government's overseas aid budget will not reach 0.5% of GNP in 2007, as promised by the Minister of Finance when he made his Estimates speech less than two weeks ago.
The Government's own figures for economic growth, released as part of the Budget, reveal that aid will in fact only reach 0.43% by 2007.
Oisin Coghlan, Christian Aid policy officer, commented: "It took the government fours years to break their promise to reach the UN aid target of 0.7% by 2007. It's only taken them two weeks to break their new promise to reach a reduced level of 0.5% of GNP.
"To paraphrase Wilde, to break one promise is unfortunate, to break two seems like carelessness."
