Former President Mary Robinson has appealed to the Government not to cut the funding for Irish Aid in the upcoming Budget.
Mrs Robinson made the comments at the annual meeting of the country’s Joint Consortium on Gender Based Violence – to which she is a special advisor.
She said the global recession was causing an increase in gender-based violence in developing countries which needed aid more than ever.
The Government has committed to contributing 0.7% of GDP to overseas aid by 2012 however currently it is at 0.48%. In a succession of cuts, the Irish Aid budget has been reduced by €222m this year. Mrs Robinson said she knew times were very tough and that people in Ireland were hurting, but that the Government should keep its commitment on aid spending.
She said when Ireland was poor in the past it was very generous to developing countries because it could identify with them. She said countries that were going through harder times than Ireland needed the Government to keep its commitment and not cut aid spending at this time.
Mrs Robinson said the Government needed to plan to meet the target of contributing 0.7% of GDP to foreign aid.