History may take a benign view of Bertie Ahern for his role in the peace process and presiding over a booming economy, but the Taoiseach will lose marks over his failure to implement his solemn promise to achieve the UN target on development aid by 2007.
It is now completely out of the question that Ireland will allocate 0.7 per cent of Gross National Product for Overseas Development Assistance within the seven-year period specified by Mr Ahern in his UN speech of September, 2000, made at a time when Ireland was seeking election to the Security Council.
Nevertheless the amounts already being delivered in aid are still very substantial.
The total aid budget this year is €545 million, almost half the amount allocated for the Garda Síochána and over two-thirds of the Defence estimate for 2005. The figure was originally €535 million but an additional €10 million was made available as part of the Government's response to the tsunami disaster in south-east Asia.
The bulk of this €545 million is administered by Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI), the aid division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. A survey by ActionAid International found that Ireland was one of the few donors whose aid is totally "untied" so that a grant for, say, the building of a bridge in an African country is not made conditional on the purchase of Irish building materials or the allocation of the contract to an Irish firm. Only three other countries gave completely untied aid - the UK, Norway and Sweden - whereas 70 per cent of US and 92 per cent of Italian aid was "tied".
Five of the Programme Countries are in Africa - Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda - while the other two are Timor Leste and Vietnam.
Countries listed below are also eligible to receive further Irish aid money channelled through non-governmental organisations - such as Concern, GOAL or Trócaire - as well as UN agencies and programmes. The NGOs may also be receiving funds from other parts of the aid budget such as emergency assistance funds. Excluding administrative costs of approximately 6 per cent, which a spokesman said are "well within international standards" and a variety of smaller projects and programmes, the main elements of Ireland's ODA allocation are as follows: -
Programme countries - Uganda €32 million; Ethiopia €30 million; Mozambique €29 million; Tanzania €25 million; Zambia €18 million; Lesotho €9.85 million; Timor Leste €3.7 million; Vietnam €3 million.
Other countries: South Africa €10.4 million; Palestinian Territories €2.35 million; Sierra Leone and Liberia €4 million; Central America €3.5 million.
Other allocations include more than €100 million in "support for civil society" such as €46.2 million in grants to five leading NGOs and €12 million for support to missionaries through the Irish Missionary Resource Service.
Emergency Humanitarian Assistance receives €27.5 million while €13.52 million is provided under the heading of Recovery Assistance, eg helping people to re-establish their livelihoods in the wake of conflicts or natural disasters. A total of €47 million is allocated in funding for UN development agencies. Approximately €50 million is given to combat Aids. Aid agencies say that, based on the present rate of increase - from 0.41 per cent this year to 0.42 per cent in 2006 and 0.43 per cent in 2008 - it will take until 2028 to reach the 0 .7 per cent UN target.
