Mind the Gap - Aid

Despite Irish Aid's announcement that Ireland’s development aid has reached its highest ever level (it still lags somewhat behind other countries and is some distance from the UN target of 0.7%) it was another poor year for overseas aid.

Ireland’s official development assistance reached €869m in 2007 - its highest level ever and an increase of 6.7% on 2006 figures. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD confirmed today that Ireland’s aid was 0.54% of our Gross National Product last year, exceeding the Government’s interim target of 0.5%. This puts us on track to reach spending of 0.7% of our GNP on overseas aid by 2012 ; three years ahead of the UN target and in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government. Our aid volume has increased five-fold over the last ten years. Ireland is now the sixth largest donor of development assistance in the world in per capita terms.