Written answers

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Irish Aid

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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120. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which aid continues to be made available to refugees arising from the ongoing situation in Syria and other similar locations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36551/16]

Photo of Joe McHughJoe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Since 2012, Ireland has provided a total of €62 million in humanitarian assistance to Syria and the region. At present, it is Ireland’s largest response to any humanitarian crisis.

Of the €20 million in funding provided by Ireland so far in 2016, €14 million has been delivered through the Irish Aid programme, managed by my Department, and €6 million through the Department of Agriculture’s support to the World Food Programme’s Syria response.

Irish Aid funding focuses on the needs of those inside Syria, particularly in besieged and hard-to-reach areas, and also the needs of refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries, in particular Lebanon and Jordan. Funding is channeled through a range of partners, including NGOs, UN organisations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, who are best placed to respond. These partners provide humanitarian supplies and urgently-needed health, education, water and sanitation services, as well as support measures to protect children and vulnerable families.

In addition, members of Ireland’s Rapid Response Corps have been deployed to the Balkans and Middle East, to work with UN agencies responding to migration challenges resulting from the Syrian conflict.

Through our annual contributions to EU Institutions, Ireland also supports the EU’s humanitarian response in Syria and the region.

In 2016, a significant focus of the EU’s response to the refugee crisis arising from the Syrian conflict has been the implementation of the Turkey Refugee Facility, to which Ireland will contribute almost €23 million over the four-year period 2016-2019. In 2016 alone, funding from the Turkey Refugee Facility has been used to launch the largest humanitarian programme in EU history, the Emergency Social Safety Net, which provides direct cash transfers to the most vulnerable refugee families in Turkey, supporting them to meet their everyday needs.

We are continuing to monitor developments in Syria and the region very closely and, given its complexity and severity, I would expect that we will need to provide additional support to refugees fleeing the conflict, as well as their host communities, over the coming months.

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