Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On the last point, the 30% reduction is accordance with the official target sought and is described officially as gross national income, which is, effectively, gross national product. In terms of other countries, we are very au fait with what is going on and take much of that into consideration. There are, of course, some differences between us and many other countries, one such relating to tied aid. Many other countries practise tied aid whereas ours is untied. In other words we do not make our aid provision dependent on any contingent consideration. It is separate from any other condition.

We were anxious to discover what was happening elsewhere in the world - we did so - but we were especially anxious to discover what the people who were providing the funds for Irish Aid thought and what were their views on how we should proceed. That is why we held meetings in Cork, Galway, Sligo, Dublin and elsewhere. We invited members of the public to attend these meetings in order that we might obtain the best of their views. They made a large number of proposals and suggestions which, in so far as is possible, have been incorporated into our final proposals.

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