Vol. 478 No. 5
25 Mr. O'Leary asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs the circumstances under which the Government during a period of unprecedented economic growth in Ireland failed to meet its own percentage GNP official development assistance target in both 1995 and 1996. [11476/97]
It is a matter of considerable satisfaction to me that there has been a rapid and very significant increase in Ireland's official development assistance in recent years. Since 1992, the budget has increased from £40 million to £122 million. In other words the budget has increased threefold in five years. The proportion of Gross National Product allocated to ODA has almost doubled over the same period increasing from 0.16 per cent to 0.31 per cent. Given the happy circumstance that our GNP has increased at an unprecedented rate in this period this represents a very creditable performance in GNP terms. This year expenditure on ODA at £122 million will be the highest ever. The increases in the ODA allocation in both 1995 and 1996 were very large in cash terms. The details for 1995, 1996 and 1997 are as follows: in 1995 spending on ODA was £96.8 million which was equivalent to 0.28 per cent of forecast GNP; in 1996 spending on ODA was £110 million which was equivalent to 0.3 per cent of forcast GNP based on provisional outturn figures; and in 1997 spending on ODA will be around £122 million which is equivalent to 0.31 per cent of estimated GNP.
