THE country’s most senior Church figure yesterday directly appealed to the Government not to cut Ireland’s overseas aid to developing countries.In an open letter to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, Cardinal Sean Brady said any further reduction in overseas development aid would have a "devastating impact on the lives of some of the world’s poorest peoples".
The letter from Cardinal Brady, the president of the Irish Episcopal Conference and the Primate of All Ireland, comes amid growing calls from non-governmental organisations for the aid budget to remain in place despite the tumbling economy.
Just last week, Trocaire director Justin Kilcullen called on trade unions and business groups to back calls for the retention of the aid budget, which was pinpointed as an area for possible cuts in the McCarthy report.
Ahead of December’s budget, Cardinal Brady said there were fears that the overseas development aid allocation would be cut this year and possibly next year.
"We acknowledge that we are facing significant challenges here at home at present," Cardinal Brady wrote.
"We know that savings must be made. However, we believe that savings made through further cuts to ODA will have a marginal impact on our own problems while having a devastating impact on the lives of some of the world’s poorest people."
He said the Catholic Bishops’ Conference was opposed to any cuts and said Pope Benedict had recently reminded economically developed nations to everything they can to allocate larger portions of their gross domestic product to development.
"For this reason, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference is opposed to such cuts and urges the Government to keep the promises made to the world’s poorest people. These vulnerable people have had no part to play in creating the multiple crises now facing them – climate, financial, food – yet the challenges they face are unprecedented. I appeal to you not to turn your back on them.
"Ireland’s aid makes a real difference in reducing poverty and inequality in some of the world’s poorest countries. Even in these difficult times, the right decision for Ireland is to show solidarity with the poor and strong leadership in honouring our international commitments."
Under the terms of the UN Millennium Development Goals, Ireland is to target spending 0.7% of gross national income on overseas aid by 2012, but the McCarthy report suggested this should be put off until 2015.
At last week’s EU Development Days conference in Sweden, Ireland was one of a number of countries mentioned from the podium by the head of International Campaigns at ActionAid International, Dr Otive Igbuzor, as examples of states where the aid budget had been cut.
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