Trócaire has written to councillors in Mayo urging them to table a motion asking the Government not to cut Ireland’s overseas aid budget any further.
Justin Kilcullen, Trócaire’s director, said that the agency felt it had to take this step to try to prevent further cuts in December. The recent cuts in the Budget are already severely impacting developing countries. “The support of the Irish people through the aid budget goes to hundreds of thousands of people who live in the most desperate conditions imaginable and are literally struggling to survive,” Mr. Kilcullen said. “These people are trying to keep themselves and their families alive and now face the possibility that they will be abandoned.
“The devastating cuts of over €200 million, or 22 per cent, made by the Government to overseas aid in recent months is already having appalling consequences for millions of people in countries where our help is often the difference between life and death,” Mr. Kilcullen continued. “Currently Ireland's overseas aid budget makes up less than 0.5 per cent of Ireland's national income. Cuts to the budget have been far higher than the cuts in any other Government department. These cuts will have a minimal impact on Ireland’s financial stability but will have a devastating impact on the world’s poor.
“The Irish people have always been champions for the world’s poor. We urge Mayo County Council and town councils in the county to support Trócaire in urging the Taoiseach and the Government to keep their commitment to spending 70c in every €100 on overseas aid by 2012,” Mr. Kilcullen concluded. “I look forward to a positive response from the councils.”
