Irelands Overseas AID budget 2011

Cork boy 55 · 13-09-2010 06:39PM #1

Ireland Overseas aid budget in 2010 is 671 million
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0907/1224278366705.html

In the 2011 budget coming up what do you want the minister to do?

Myrddin · 13-09-2010 06:40PM

Resign

admiralofthefleet · 13-09-2010 06:41PM

look after its internal affairs first before helping overseas, charity begins at home

angry_fox · 13-09-2010 06:43PM

if it is cut how is mugabe going to be able keep his fleet of rolls royces on the road??

acurno · 13-09-2010 06:45PM

Cut it to zero until a full audit is done on the expenditure on 2009 aid budget.

Read 'Dead Aid' by Dambisa Moyo and 'War Games' by Linda Polman.

A real eye opener to anyone who cares about the development of the third world. Aid hinders development and extends and worsens conflict.

Hazys · 13-09-2010 06:47PM

As bad as things are in Ireland...

Ireland is pretty well off in comparison to the 5.5 billion people in World living on less than $10 a day.

Phill Ewinn · 13-09-2010 06:49PM

I'd be asking how effective this policy is from Ireland's point of view.

admiralofthefleet · 13-09-2010 06:49PM

so far today i have spent €5.69 i bought a 2 litre bottle of coke and a winning streak ticket so i have lived for under that amount today.
do i qualify for aid?

Hazys · 13-09-2010 06:53PM

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

so far today i have spent €5.69 i bought a 2 litre bottle of coke and a winning streak ticket so i have lived for under that amount today.
do i qualify for aid?

So you didnt eat anything today or pay any rent?

admiralofthefleet · 13-09-2010 06:56PM

Hazys wrote: »

So you didnt eat anything today or pay any rent?

i visited my mother for dinner and i have my own place

RayM · 13-09-2010 07:00PM

admiralofthefleet wrote: »

i visited my mother for dinner and i have my own place

That settles it then. The 5.5 billion people living on less than $10 a day should just get places of their own, and visit their mothers for dinner. Problem solved.

Spacedog · 13-09-2010 07:02PM

the worlds overpopulated.

at the moment we all spend a tiny anount on aid, and a whole lot on guns to keep the surplus down.

should be spending on rockets to get our asses off this planet before the fuel runs out.

if you believe in armageddon you won't care, already given up on humanity, but is mankind is to thrive, we have to make a sustainable jump to the stars, instead of fighting over the scraps left for us down here.

arthur c clarke knew it, gene roddenbury knew it, bill hicks knew it. my primary school teacher knew it.

keep the aid, spend the gun and bomb money on spaceships and that freeze dried icecream, I love that stuff.

angry_fox · 13-09-2010 07:02PM

I think there is 4000 + charities in ireland at the moment, its big business these days and the corrpution in overseas aid must be shocking.

kowloon · 13-09-2010 07:04PM

RayM wrote: »

That settles it then. The 5.5 billion people living on less than $10 a day should just get places of their own, and visit their mothers for dinner. Problem solved.

'Solution to world poverty final found', remember this day.

Chuchoter · 13-09-2010 07:05PM

Cut it completely. Bilateral aid does not work. Its never worked and never will work. Its white guilt and nothing else.

Wolfe Tone · 13-09-2010 07:06PM

As bad as we have it, recession etc.... People in other countries have it a thousand times worse. We are lucky, so lucky not to live in a country like they do, with starvation etc. It is our obligation to give as much money as possible.

Chuchoter · 13-09-2010 07:11PM

Thats all well and good, but its throwing money into a black hole. Bilateral aid never achieves anything other than infantilizing countries and funding corrupt governments.

Nodin · 13-09-2010 07:16PM

Cork boy 55 wrote: »

Ireland Overseas aid budget in 2010 is 671 million
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0907/1224278366705.html

In the 2011 budget coming up what do you want the minister to do?

Wheres the "leave it be" option in the poll?

Phill Ewinn · 13-09-2010 07:38PM

In AH its called atari jaguar or something.........

CrazyRabbit · 13-09-2010 07:48PM

I'd prefer a review of where the money is being spent. I don't agree with giving aid to countries like Pakistan that has spent billions on huge armies and developing nuclear weapons.

kincsem · 13-09-2010 08:38PM

Every charity in Ireland that supports third-world countries try this: employ someone from the aid country in the charity, and send someone from the charity to work in the aid country.

Try this until a high proportion of head office are foreign nationals, say on five year contracts, long enough to skill up, short enough so as not to get too institutionalized. At the end of the contract period the Irish could come back to head office with an idea of how to be effective, and the foreign nationals would know how to use the system to home advantage.

PeterIanStaker · 13-09-2010 08:47PM

Cut by a good bit but not entirely. There are still people in Haiti etc who need help to put their lives back together.

ScissorPaperRock · 13-09-2010 08:53PM

It's not just a matter of guilt. It's a matter of morality, as well as doing what in everybody's best interests.

As globalisation continues we are very rapidly going to see small problems grow very large and spreading very quickly, particularly with massive increases in populations and longer lifespans, and increased movement of people around the globe. As well as this we're facing the global challenge of becoming sustainable, and to try and reduce the rate of global warming.

It has to be done, we have to work together.

FreudianSlippers · 13-09-2010 09:21PM

crayolastereo wrote: »

Cut it completely. Bilateral aid does not work. Its never worked and never will work. Its white guilt and nothing else.

Doesn't work at all - the best thing we could do to aid those in need is give them something so they can produce their own money. With wind and solar power getting cheaper, we give them a few panels and windmills, and see what they can do with cheap electricity!

Gyalist · 13-09-2010 09:30PM

crayolastereo wrote: »

Thats all well and good, but its throwing money into a black hole. Bilateral aid never achieves anything other than infantilizing countries and funding corrupt governments.

Maybe you should inform yourself of how aid really works. The majority of foreign aid is actually spent in the donor country.

starbelgrade · 13-09-2010 09:33PM

ScissorPaperRoc wrote: »

It's not just a matter of guilt. It's a matter of morality, as well as doing what in everybody's best interests.

What is actually in the 3rd World's interests is that we stop throwing AID money at them. It does nothing for their problems, but only serves to make them worse.

It is no coincidence, that as foreign AID to Africa has increased, so too has poverty & starvation.

Yes, it is a matter of morality, but not in the way you are suggesting.

starbelgrade · 13-09-2010 09:35PM

Gyalist wrote: »

Maybe you should inform yourself of how aid really works. The majority of foreign aid is actually spent in the donor country.

Just because it is spent in the donor country doesn't mean that it is benefitting the most needy. And even when it does, it creates a culture of dependency, which is of no benefit to anybody.

ScissorPaperRock · 13-09-2010 09:41PM

starbelgrade wrote: »

What is actually in the 3rd World's interests is that we stop throwing AID money at them. It does nothing for their problems, but only serves to make them worse.

It is no coincidence, that as foreign AID to Africa has increased, so too has poverty & starvation.

Yes, it is a matter of morality, but not in the way you are suggesting.

It's a question of how aid is used. Helping build the structures so that these countries have the means to develop.

And no, it's not a coincidence. As the situation in Africa deteriorated, donor nations increased aid.

starbelgrade · 13-09-2010 10:14PM

ScissorPaperRoc wrote: »

It's a question of how aid is used. Helping build the structures so that these countries have the means to develop.

And no, it's not a coincidence. As the situation in Africa deteriorated, donor nations increased aid.

You are confusing the effects with the cause.

What Africa needs is widespread political change, not more money & interference from the West. Until that happens, things will never improve in Africa. They will only continue to deteriorate.

However, I fear that there are too many vested interests for this to be allowed to happen. And none of these vested interests have Africa's best interests at heart.

af_thefragile · 13-09-2010 10:20PM

Maybe he could move some of his $400billion defense budget into aid/economic stability budget...

KINGVictor · 13-09-2010 10:32PM

I am going to confess at the outset that I dont have have the statistics but I can imagine that the figure being quoted by the OP would be a "very low" percentage of the aggregate Irish budget.

We all know the huge amount of tax payers funds being used in the current face-saving endeavour by the government in relation to the Anglo-Irish Bank debacle!! Despite all attempts by economists and other well informed professionals about the long-run negative effects their actions will have on the Irish economy- yet they persist.

I believe that any friutful discussion/debate should be based on the folly of the Government's unbelievable attempt to destroy any chance of the Irish economy to resurrect in the near future rather than deliberate on a minister saying he would give aid of aid of + €600 million...do you honestly think the world and development agencies will miss any reduction or even in the extreme case , scrappge of our contributions, but you have to realise the budget of US's aid budget is almost the total budget of the Irish government and about a quarter of the Uk's.

I understand the concern of some folks who think that these funds could be chanelled to more pressing domestic issues but you have to look at the big picture- some folks are desperately waiting for Ireland to default to make a fortune- can we sacrifice our international goodwill at the expense of €600 million ??

Irelands Overseas AID budget 2011

In the 2011 budget what do you want the minister to do with the Overseas AID bugdet 92 votes

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