Govt considers increasing €10m aid donation

The Government is to consider increasing its €10m donation to the victims of the Asian tsunami, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said today.

He and other ministers will meet aid agencies later today to discuss funding and co-ordination of relief activities.

“We will look at everything. It’s not that we’re going to be mealy-mouthed about this,” said Mr Ahern.

The death toll from the tsunami is expected to exceed 150,000 people.

Mr Ahern confirmed the Government’s donations were “brand new money” and were not being taken from the existing aid budget.

He said the Government had increased its aid allocation as the scale of the disaster became apparent.

“At the start of this, nobody realised the enormity of it. It’s only today the awful vista ahead of these nations is coming to the fore,” he told RTE radio.

Mr Ahern said he was extremely worried about four Irish people who were still missing. The ATM card of one of them, Eilis Finnegan, from Ballyfermot, Dublin, was put on display by Thai police yesterday.

Mr Ahern said another 17 missing Irish people, whose names were supplied by friends, were in the “medium risk” category.

“While we’re continuing to search for these, the fact that their families, bar one, have not been in contact with us gives us some cause for hope,” he said.

He denied there had been a slow response to the disaster from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“The staff have been working non-stop around the clock since St Stephen’s Day, as I have,” he said.

Mr Ahern said the Government would be willing to provide any assistance requested by the UN, including Irish Army personnel.