Vol. 554 No. 5
482 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the Government's U-turn regarding the allocation of overseas aid where the promised increase of 0.45% of GNP, made in the Programme for Government two months previously, was reduced to 0.41% resulting in a loss of ?32 million in view of the Taoiseach's promise to the UN Millennium Summit in September 2001 that the Government would meet the UN target of 0.7% by 2007. [15980/02]
The Government decided in September 2000 to achieve by 2007 the UN target for ODA expenditure of 0.7% of GNP. The Programme for Government makes clear that "we will complete our major expansion of our overseas development aid programme, achieving the UN target of 0.7% of GNP by 2007". At the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, the Taoiseach reconfirmed the Government's clear commitment to this objective.
Due to current economic circumstances, the size of the budget increase for the Ireland Aid programme this year will be €32 million less than originally envisaged. The revised allocation for 2002 is €340 million. I want to emphasise that, while we will not reach 0.45% of GNP this year, the €340 million allocation represents an increase of €100 million over the 2001 budget and is the largest single annual increase in the history of the programme. In the history of Ireland Aid, it is an unprecedented level of resources.
