Today the government of The Republic of Ireland announced its ‘National Recovery Plan’. This is essentially an emergency budget which outlines a programme of cuts in public spending in the wake of the Irish Government’s decision to accept a package of financial assistance from the EU, the UK and the IMF.
As part of this recovery plan 35million Euros will be cut from the ODA element of the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs. This represents a reduction of approximately 5% in Ireland’s ODA. This will also probably reduce Ireland’s ODA as a percentage of GNI to around 0.51%-0.52%, down from 0.59% in 2008 and 0.54% in 2009.
The reduction in ODA accounts for a significant majority of the spending cuts in the foreign affairs budget (€35million out of total full-year savings of €37million in 2007). No detailed plans for ODA levels have been published for the years 2012-2014, but the overall savings from the foreign affairs budget over these three years are predicted to total €150million. Thus it would seem reasonable to assume that ODA could fall even further, perhaps being €40-€50million lower in these three years compared to 2010.
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