Emmet Stagg
Ceist:27 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs when Ireland will reach the UN target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product for overseas development aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8934/99]
Written Answers. - Overseas Development Aid.
Bernard J. Durkan
Ceist:101 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the extent to which Ireland will set an example in respect of achieving internationally accepted levels of development aid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9180/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 27 and 101 together.
The Government, along with most of its donor partners, is committed to the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GNP for Official Development Assistance (ODA) and to reaching an interim target in the lifetime of this Government of 0.45 per cent of GNP. The progress being made in developing our aid programme in recent years and in moving towards these targets is significant. For example, on the basis of the most up-to-date calculation available, ODA in 1999 will amount to £158 million. This is the largest allocation since our aid programme began 25 years ago this year.
Our best estimate for ODA is that it will reach £172 million in the year 2000 and £195 million in 2001. The figure for 1998 was £137 million. Only seven years ago, in 1992, ODA was a mere £40 million. There has, therefore, been a four-fold increase in ODA in that seven year period. No other donor country has such a rate of increase in the period. Expressed as a percentage of GNP, the increase in the period was from 0.16 per cent to 0.31 per cent.
As the House is aware, the main factor in the increase in ODA this year and in the next two years is the Governments agreement to planned increases in Vote 39 in the period 1999 to 2001. This commitment is without precedent in our programme. It provides the single biggest set of increases in the history of Irish aid and it allows for the first time for multi-annual budgeting for long-term, sustainable development programmes in our priority countries, which are among the poorest in the world. This applies also to what we provide to deal with man-made and natural emergencies, for our voluntary contributions to UN and other multilateral aid agencies, for the Agency for Personal Service Overseas (APSO) and for our assistance through NGOs. Importantly too, these increases are in addition to the package announced some months ago for debt relief.
What has been agreed is that the aid allocation administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs will amount to £400 million in the period 1999 to 2001. Specifically, the aid subheads of Vote 39, the Vote for International Co-operation, subheads C to G inclusive, will amount to £104.374 million in 1999, £136.400 million in 2000 and £159.200 in 2001, an increase next year of over 30 per cent and an increase of 17 per cent the following year. This will be in addition to contributions by other Departments to multilateral institutions such as the Global Environment Facility or those under the Food Aid Convention of the World Food Programme. This agreement underpins the growth of the aid programme and marks further increments towards the interim target of 0.45 per cent of GNP and the ultimate goal set by the UN of 0.7 per cent of GNP.