Ireland offers €1m aid as typhoon death toll hits 10,000

The Government is to provide €1m towards the relief effort for Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, where at least 10,000 people have died in one area.

Tents, tarpaulins, and blankets will also be donated and distributed through charity organisations, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

The US has committed $100,000 for relief works and is sending marines to help. Ireland’s Rapid Response Corps is on standby to assist UN agencies.

About 12,000 Filipinos live in Ireland. Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said: “Ireland has strong bonds with the Filipino people through our missionaries and through the many Filipinos working in our hospitals and elsewhere in Ireland.”

Plan Ireland launched an emergency appeal, while Trócaire has committed emergency support to the Philippines.

The European commissioner for humanitarian aid, Kristalina Georgieva, said €3m in assistance would be provided and yesterday Dublin MEP Gay Mitchell urged any Filipinos here with concerns about inadequate disaster responses on the ground to contact him.

“If the Filipino community are aware of needs that are not being met, which they feel the European Community could assist, I would be very happy to talk to them and raise this with the Commissioner,” he said.