Why are we giving €5 million a year to India?

Tipsy Mac

Why is the Irish government giving €5 million a year in aid to India when that country had enough funds to purchase 200 tonnes of gold for $6.7 billion in October of this year?

http://www.irelandinindia.com/home/index.aspx?id=73710

http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1126/gold.html

Psychedelic

Because the Irish Government are incompetent fools.

schween

We should get a refund for the floods.

Or we should ask India for aid.

westtip

They should be told to get their own house in order - just like the germans are telling us --

So Op why shoud the Germans give us 21 billion Euro a year??

kippy

westtip wrote: »

They should be told to get their own house in order - just like the germans are telling us --

So Op why shoud the Germans give us 21 billion Euro a year??

The 21 Billion was a relatively high interest loan, what we are giving India is a donation.....
What happens in Ireland, whether we like it or not, has a large impact on what happens in Germany, especially if we go under.....

seclachi

Irelands always been pretty big on foreign aid for a small country. I doubt the money is going straight into the governments coffers, theres alot more people who are a lot worse off in India.

starbelgrade

Ireland's commitment to the U.N. is to provide 0.7% of it's GNP to ODAs (Overseas Development Aid) by 2012. The €5 million of that which goes to India, is a fraction of that - in 2008, we gave €914 million in ODAs.

For a small country, we are still a relatively wealthy country - our GDP in 2008, even during a recession, was $276.6 billion, or $45,500 per capita, compared to a GDP per capita of $2,900 in India.

Inida also has 25% of it's population living below the poverty line and with a population of 1,166,079,217 - the 2nd highest poulation in the world, that's one hell of a lot of people.

If we give €5 million to a small number of Indians to build a few wells for drinking water, it's just a drop in the ocean.

(Figures are taken mostly from the CIAs website).

Tipsy Mac

starbelgrade wrote: »

Inida also has 25% of it's population living below the poverty line and with a population of 1,166,079,217 - the 2nd highest poulation in the world, that's one hell of a lot of people.

If we give €5 million to a small number of Indians to build a few wells for drinking water, it's just a drop in the ocean.

(Figures are taken mostly from the CIAs website).

Points taken but $6.7 billion would purchase many wells for one hell of a lot of people.

kippy

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

Points taken but $6.7 billion would purchase many wells for one hell of a lot of people.

Sorry,
I dont understand where you came up with that 6.7 billion figure. what is that in relation to?

Smau5

In the "which country needs Aid the most?" question
Africa > Every country

If the fact about the Gold is true, that is a disgrace.

Tipsy Mac

kippy wrote: »

Sorry,
I dont understand where you came up with that 6.7 billion figure. what is that in relation to?

See my original post above...http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1126/gold.html

kippy

Tipsy Mac wrote: »

See my original post above...http://www.rte.ie/business/2009/1126/gold.html

Sorry, dunno how I missed that.

Well,
Ireland does give money to countries whose governments spend money on far worse than gold. At least gold is a good investment.
We should have pumped a few billion into gold in the good times ourselves.

I do agree with your tone however.........

Blackjack

Chances are that India used their existing Foreign Reserves (probably US Dollars) to purchase the Gold.

PaulieD

Dont forget India's space programme!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research_Organisation

So, we cough up 12 million euro to help those hit by the worst floods the country has seen in years. This money will be means tested. Yet we have 700 odd million to hand out to the developing world? Glad to see the government have their priorities in order.

leninbenjamin

India can spend $7b on gold because the ruling classes don't give a **** about their lower classes there. India's poor live in some of the worst conditions in the world. Most of that is money well spent tbh.

seclachi

leninbenjamin wrote: »

India can spend $7b on gold because the ruling classes don't give a **** about their lower classes there. India's poor live in some of the worst conditions in the world. Most of that is money well spent tbh.

Yeah, country's like india have far more division between the classes, here being lower class might mean driving a clapped out fiesta and living in a 2 bedroomer, in India its probably starving to death in a gutter. Then on the other hand you have these loopers who wind up with more money than they know what to do with.

You`ll also find that aid money that is assigned by the government trickles away from corruption, while NGO`s can give it directly.

Kristopherus

Why should we give a flying fcuk about India ? Our country is swimming and they can only come up with 10m. Lets get real for a change and divert that cash to help our own first.

dvpower

Ireland is not giving money to India. Ireland is giving money to Indians.

(Now, why is Ireland giving €5m a year to Indians?)

starbelgrade

Kristopherus wrote: »

Our country is swimming

Bit of an exaggeration there - only some areas of the country are affected by the floods. It's not like the country is sinking (literally, though methatphorically you could argue that it is).

leninbenjamin

starbelgrade wrote: »

only some areas of the country are affected by the floods.

enough though to ask where some people's priorities lie.

djpbarry

Kristopherus wrote: »

Why should we give a flying fcuk about India ? Our country is swimming and they can only come up with 10m. Lets get real for a change and divert that cash to help our own first.

Let’s indeed “get real”. How many people are starving in Ireland as a result of the floods? How many Irish children are underweight? How many Irish people have trouble accessing basic sanitary facilities like toilets? How many Irish people die from easily preventable diseases, such as cholera and tuberculosis, every year?

People are seriously in need of some perspective if they think things in Ireland are all that bad right now. It’s perfectly reasonable to ask why a country with such incredibly wealthy individuals can also have such incredibly poor communities, but if about €1.20 per Irish resident per year can save a few lives, I’m more than happy to pay it. How many Irish people will spend several multiples of that on a single beverage this evening?

Mena

Some of the posters in this thread need a dose of reality. Go live in a third world country for 20 years like I did, the come back and speak to me, you'll be singing a very different tune.

You don't know what poverty is, you don't have a clue.