Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will find out almost exactly at the same time I do what the budget allocation will be for 2009. As he well knows, nobody can predict what that will be until it is published by the Minister for Finance on that particular day. It is, however, important to know that the overarching target of 0.7% is expressed as a percentage of GNP. That obviously translates, on a year by year basis, into real terms and real money, but because it is expressed as a percentage of GNP the figure alters, accordingly. The reality is that GNP, far from being a projected 3.5% for this year, will be somewhere in the region of -0.1% and the budget is altered, accordingly. We have allocated the adjustments in 2008 equally right across the programme with the exception of missionaries and NGOs to whom we had made specific commitments at the start of the year.

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