Trócaire welcomes council vote against further overseas aid cuts

A leading charity has welcomed the motion by Tullamore Town Council to vote against any Government cuts to overseas aid. Council members unanimously passed a motion that the Government should keep its commitment to spending 70 cent of every €100 on overseas aid by 2012. The council tabled the motion at its September meeting at the request of Trócaire, which said that cuts to the aid budget must stop. "Trócaire welcomes the motion by Tullamore Town Council which sends a clear statement to Mr Cowen from his home town that there should not be any more aid cuts," said Justin Kilcullen, Director of Trócaire. "We thank Tullamore Town Council for recognising the life-saving value of Ireland's aid budget and sending a message that overseas aid is a vital matter. We urge the Government not to cut the aid budget any further in December, but to listen to what the public want. Further cuts would be unfair, unjust and totally disproportionate to cuts in other government departments, and could mean the difference between life and death for people already living on the edge," said Mr Kilcullen. Mr Kilcullen said that the overseas aid budget has been slashed by 24% so far, compared to an average 6% cut to other departments during this recession. "The aid budget makes up less than one per cent of the country's overall spending so the government is saving a relatively small amount of money by cutting aid so significantly. Meanwhile lives are being put at risk in desperately poor communities," he added. In a national poll carried out by Trócaire, the majority of respondents said Ireland should increase aid money to developing countries, despite the economic crisis. 39 per cent of people supported an increase in overseas aid, while 26 per cent were against this. The results also showed that almost everyone thought Ireland was spending far more on aid than is the case - with the majority believing 10.6% of national income went on overseas aid. In fact 48 cent out of every €100 goes on aid.