Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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448. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the total humanitarian aid provided to date for the Philippines following typhoon Haiyan in November 2013; if it is proposed to provide further assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48985/14]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever recorded made landfall across the central Philippines on 8 November 2013. It is estimated that the Typhoon affected more than 14 million people, with almost 4 million displaced, including some 1.5 million children. Over 6,000 lives are known to have been lost with more than 28,000 injured and 1000 people missing.

Ireland was among the first to respond to this disaster, providing immediate, life-saving assistance. To date we have provided funding of over €7.1 million and, with an additional estimated €4 million in voluntary donations by the Irish public. This makes Ireland one of the most generous contributors to the relief effort on a per capita basis.

Over €4.9 million of Ireland’s funding was provided through key non-governmental partners. Funding was used for the provision of emergency food and non-food items; water, sanitation and hygiene; emergency health care and the protection of vulnerable women and children in the initial emergency response phase and in support of recovery and reconstruction efforts in 2014. In the immediate aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, we arranged four airlifts of essential relief items - over 166 tonne valued at €967,000 - from Irish Aid emergency pre-positioned stocks.

My colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, approved a contribution of €500,000 to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) to support its work to restore the livelihoods of farmers affected bythe Typhoon. My predecessor, Minister of State Joe Costello, visited this programme, along with others supported by Irish Aid, in March 2014 and was impressed by the positive impact of the support on the ground and by the remarkable resilience of the communities affected who are rebuilding their lives and livelihoods.

An enormous amount has been achieved over the past twelve months. I am pleased that a delegation from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, led by Chairman Pat Breen, T.D., had the opportunity last month to visit Irish Aid-supported programmes for communities recovering from Typhoon Haiyan in and around Tacloban. The delegation saw at firsthand the positive impact that these shelter reconstruction, education and livelihoods programmes are continuing to have on the local communities and in support of the Philippines government.

We are monitoring the situation closely following Typhoon Hagupit which struck the Philippines recently, also causing extensive damage in areas near to those affected by Typhoon Haiyan. We are currently considering what further assistance Ireland might provide in 2015 to support ongoing recovery in the Philippines.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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449. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the total humanitarian aid provided to date to assist in dealing with the Ebola outbreak in west Africa; if it is proposed to provide further assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48986/14]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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The spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa continues to present an enormous challenge to the international community. Working together we must continue to strengthen our response so that the necessary skilled personnel and medical facilities are funded, mobilised and deployed to West Africa to deal with the crisis. It is only by tackling this devastating Ebola outbreak at its source that we can eventually overcome it and save lives.

The EU and its Member States have now committed over €1.1 billion to the international Ebola response. Ireland too has been playing its part, financially and through the work on the ground of our Embassy in Sierra Leone. This year, Ireland has provided over €18 million, directly and through NGOs. Some €10 million has been provided through our annual development programmes in our partner countries in West Africa - Sierra Leone and Liberia. This support is focused particularly on strengthening the national health systems. We have also provided over €5.5 million in recent months specifically for Ebola treatment facilities and for work on contact-tracing, community mobilisation and child nutrition programmes, among other activities. We have delivered all of our announced funding.

Ireland will continue to support Sierra Leone and Liberia throughout 2015, and indeed beyond, as they emerge from the Ebola crisis and begin the process of restoring their economic and social structures.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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450. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the total humanitarian aid provided to date for Syria and that region; if it is proposed to provide further assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48987/14]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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451. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if the failure of the international community to provide adequate humanitarian aid to Syria and that region was discussed at the recent EU Foreign Affairs Council; if the failure of the international community to honour the commitments made following the Humanitarian Aid Pledging Conference was discussed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48993/14]

Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 450 and 451 together.

The protracted crisis in Syria has resulted in immense humanitarian need. More than 200,000 people have lost their lives, and there are now over 12.2 million people in need of immediate life-saving support within Syria. There are a further 3.3 million Syrian refugees requiring assistance in neighbouring countries. The revised UN response plan for Syria and the refugee populations requested US$6.5 billion dollars in total for operations in 2014, of which approximately 53% has been provided by the international community to date. This represents the largest humanitarian appeal in the history of the UN. In Syria alone the EU has provided €1.5 billion to assist refugees so far. Ireland strongly supports the continuation of the EU’s role as the largest donor to this prolonged crisis and has used every opportunity to encourage donors to honour their pledges towards the humanitarian response.

Ireland is one of the most generous contributors to the humanitarian response on a per capita basis. At the Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria and the region held in Kuwait last January, Ireland pledged to provide €12 million in humanitarian assistance over the course of 2014. Given the scale of the crisis, we have already exceeded this pledge by €2 million. Since 2011, Ireland has provided over €28 million in humanitarian support to the Syrian people, delivered through UN partners and NGOs.

Ireland has also been consistent in our efforts to ensure that the necessary attention is given by the international community to this crisis, including at the most recent meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. At this meeting discussions were focussed on efforts to strengthen the security of Syrian refugees and the shortfall in funding to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in their response to the crisis. Fortunately, WFP has been able to resume its provision of food aid in Syria. It was agreed that the suspension of the WFP activities should not be allowed to happen again, and that longer term support to the organisation is needed.

The UN appeal for assistance to the Syrian people for 2015 is due to be launched today, 18 December, in Berlin. Once these detailed plans are available, I will consider how we can best respond to the need for additional assistance in 2015, while remaining mindful of the huge needs of people affected by other humanitarian crises, in Africa and elsewhere.