The Government must reverse its decision to delay reaching United Nations aid targets, a Government-controlled Oireachtas committee has declared.
In a letter to the Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen, the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs chairman, Fianna Fáil TD Dr Michael Woods, pushed for extra Third World aid in Wednesday's Budget.
The committee has visited Irish aid projects in Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia and South Africa.
"It is clear that in almost every project the greatest shortage is money," he said.
In particular, Dr Woods said it is "all the more important" substantial extra money is allocated to ensure that life-saving work in sub-Saharan Africa does not suffer.
The Government has dropped plans to reach the United Nations 0.7 per cent gross national product aid target by 2007, despite Taoiseach Mr Ahern's formal pledge.
Instead, it intends to add €190 million to the aid budget over the next three years - bringing the total to be spent between now and 2007 to €1.8 billion.
Despite charges from some aid agencies that Ireland will be spending 0.44 per cent of GNP on aid by 2007, Dr Woods said that the committee accepted the Government's 0.48 per cent estimate.
Privately, it is argued in some Government quarters that slower aid increases are justified because the Government's aid arm, Development Co-operation Ireland, has not yet geared up to handle bigger sums.
Disagreeing, Dr Woods, who chairs the Government-controlled Oireachtas committee, said:
"The groundwork to successfully deploy additional funding in the Irish programme has been well prepared. There is every confidence that the programme can effectively employ extra allocations."
The Government, he said, should take "the opportunity in the Budget to provide an additional allocation to ensure our ODA [Overseas Development Assistance] meets the Government's targets that have been supported by all parties in the Houses of the Oireachtas".
Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI) has invested in HIV/AIDS, education, health, water and sanitation, rural communications and governance in recent years.
"Twice in the last four years, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has praised Ireland for the quality of its investment," Dr Woods wrote.
The DCI work has shown "the urgent need" for more aid to more countries to tackle the AIDS crisis, along with funding research into vaccines and treatments.
