Lenihan: Govt will allocate more money to Asia relief effort

Junior Minister Conor Lenihan has said the Government will allocate more money to the relief effort in south Asia following the St Stephen's Day tsunami disaster.

Mr Lenihan is attending a summit in Brussels to co-ordinate the EU response to the disaster.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern is also at the Brussels summit and is due to visit some of the affected countries tomorrow.

"I believe that the Government will be allocating more to this particular disaster as we get more information from the ground," Mr Lenihan said today.

"That's why my senior minister, Dermot Ahern, is travelling to the region to find out exactly what the position is on the ground and to find out what we can do in the long term in terms of recovery and reconstruction and the cost of that."