The decentralisation of the State's €500 million overseas aid programme known as Development Co-operation Ireland to Limerick, could undermine its effectiveness, according to a Government-appointed watchdog.
The advisory board for DCI said the relocation of the programme outside Dublin undermined an earlier recommendation that it remain an integral part of the Department of Foreign Affairs. This was seen in a 2002 review as the best way of ensuring coherence between aid policy and other aspects of foreign policy.
Plans by the Government to move DCI to Limerick as part of its decentralisation plans have met with stiff resistance. Only a fraction of the staff have applied to move, and senior officials have expressed concerns about difficulties in recruiting and retaining specialised staff outside of Dublin.
Chairman of the advisory board, the former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Flood, has now added his voice to these concerns.
"The advisory board is fearful that the relocation of DCI may make it a less attractive option for diplomatic staff, as well as involving a loss of specialist development staff," he said in a foreword to the latest annual report published by the board.
Mr Flood also called for an early announcement of a new date for reaching the UN target of 0.7 per cent on aid spending.
The board favours a target date of 2010, although the Government is likely to announce a later date, possibly 2015, in the autumn.
Unless year-on-year increases in the aid budget are committed, Ireland will dissipate the goodwill it has garnered from the international community on this issue, he warned.
He said the board had not expected to be concerned with this issue and all its recommendations were premised on the target being reached by 2007, as originally promised by the Government.
Instead, the issue pre-occupied the board from its first meeting as it became clear that not enough progress was being made to attain the target.
An early announcement of a new target date was critical, Mr Flood said. "Until this happens Ireland, rather than moving up the league to join the small group of countries that have reached the UN target, will remain among the third division of countries that have an aspiration to reach the target but without a fixed timeframe for doing so."
Mr Flood also expressed concern about the "very limited awareness" among the public of the DCI programme. "The board believes that a strategic communications plan to project the programme more systematically and inform the taxpayer of its impact is essential if support for the much increased programme implied by achieving the UN target is to be consolidated."
