What is to be done to ensure that aid commitments are delivered in full and on time? This article develops six options for action by the government and Irish Aid, noting that keeping commitments goes beyond building relations of trust as it also enhances the efficiency and impact of aid expenditure.

Support for the aid efficiency argument is drawn from reports on the malign outcomes for poor countries of donors’ aid deliveries differing from their prior commitments and from international agreements, including the Paris Declaration on Aid Efficiency.

Most aid commitments are in the multi-annual development programmes agreed between Irish Aid and each of its partner countries and aid agencies. However, money to fulfil these commitments is only allocated by annual votes of parliamentarians in Dáil Éireann.

Arrangements in other countries to ensure delivery of multi-annual public expenditure plans and to safeguard delivery of multi-annual aid commitments are described for two countries with parliamentary institutions comparable with those in Ireland. These, and commitments in the White Paper on Irish Aid, provide the foundations for the proposed six options to enhance the predictability and reliability of Irish Aid and thus its efficiency