Weak euro cost Concern £1.27m

Relief and development agency Concern has said the weakness of the euro cost it £1.27 million (€1.6 million) in the past year, almost the equivalent of the £1.5 million block grant it received from the Government.

The agency conducts 80 per cent of its overseas expenditure in US dollars but the same percentage of its public donation income is in euros. In a pre-Budget submission it has called on the Government to provide compensation for this. It has also sought a doubling of the annual block grant to £3 million.

Concern has called on the Government to review Irish contributions to EU development work, as it believes this has "become increasingly inefficient and ineffective". Calling for the establishment of a regulatory office for charities, the agency said regulation of the charity sector would be in the interests of the public and bonafide charities.

It welcomed the decision to increase the Republic's aid budget to 0.7 per cent of GNP by 2007 and recommended that this year's figure be raised to 0.35 per cent of GNP. The increased monies could be used to selectively increase the Irish contribution to those UN agencies, such as the UN Development Programme, that have "proven their effectiveness in poverty alleviation and human rights work", according to the agency.

Concern proposed an increased allocation of money for public education around development issues and called for a "once-off" sum of £1.5 million to assist with the establishment of an emergency response team and to generally strengthen Concern's ability to respond to humanitarian crises.