Ms Liz O'Donnell:

We are hoping that those four agencies will ultimately join us; at the moment they are considering it and they are very supportive of the concept. Concern, Oxfam, The Red Cross and GOAL are all members of The Deck in the UK. They approve of the concept and they are considering joining our alliance and we hope they will. If the Government were to agree match funding, that would change their minds and they would be much more supportive of joining the alliance. Initially there are some expenses for the agency in joining, but in the round and the long term it is really worth it and everybody raises more funds. As Mr. Casey said, this is a national appeal. Everybody is working together, with the support of the Irish Government which strengthens the reputation and the solidarity of the Irish people behind the appeal. That would be represented on the "Six O'Clock News", there would be a public service announcement and all the rest of it which would shore up public support and give confidence to the Irish people that this is our national appeal and to support a particular emergency. We do not imagine we will have more than maybe two a year, we have only had four since we have been established, the Turkey appeal, the Ukraine appeal, the Horn of Africa appeal and the Coronavirus appeal. Gaza is a typical example. The Irish people are brokenhearted about what is happening in Gaza, from children to young adults, we are all broken-hearted watching and feeling like we cannot actually help. People feel helpless and frustrated. Gaza will be a long-term emergency, it is going to have to be rebuilt. That is where the Irish people can throw all their love and devotion and commitment to this terrible humanitarian disaster.

It has to be remembered that we have been long-term supporters of Palestine. I met Yasser Arafat myself when I was a Minister. We have funded schools and UNRWA and I agree with what the Tánaiste said this morning, that people have to restore the funding for UNRWA. The fact that so many countries abandoned UNRWA because of the obviously legitimate concerns of complicity in the Hamas attack is concerning. To stop funding the humanitarian assistance by UNRWA is unconscionable and the Tánaiste was quite correct to call for other countries to restore funding; we never stopped it, quite rightly. Gaza is a classic example of once we have access through the Irish Emergency Alliance, the Irish Government will be able to pour support into it.