Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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182. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the details of his engagements with European counterparts regarding the potential activation of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism to relieve humanitarian disaster in Palestine; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24911/25]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) is the EU’s crisis response mechanism, which facilitates a coordinated response from EU Member States and 10 participating states to emergencies inside and outside the EU. The Mechanism is activated when a country affected by a crisis requests assistance through the UCPM. More rarely, a UN agency will request assistance for a crisis affecting a particular country. Responses include providing relief items, firefighting, search and rescue teams or other experts, and medical evacuations. The UCPM is not used to provide financial assistance.

In the case of Palestine, the UCPM was activated last year by the World Health Organisation to request medical evacuation of Gazan patients from Egypt and directly from Gaza. Eleven EU Member States and two UCPM Participating States have responded to this request, including Ireland. To date, 18 medical evacuations have been conducted through the UCPM with a total of 180 patients and 396 family members or companions. Ireland has supported two medical evacuations of Gazan patients from Egypt, in December 2024 and May 2025. There were also related requests for emergency medical teams in Gaza and medical equipment to support the Egyptian health system. Eleven EU member states have provided medical equipment, including Ireland. Ireland provided blood bags to the Egyptian health system in December 2023, and a medical expert to the WHO Emergency Medical Team Coordination Cell in Cairo in April 2024.

Ireland regularly participates in UCPM coordination meetings and has responded to several requests through the UCPM in relation to other crises. Ireland's engagement with the UCPM is led by the National Directorate for Fire and Emergency Management (NDFEM) within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.