Trócaire reveals record donations

Public donations to Trócaire reached an all-time high last year helping to raise almost €84m for disaster-hit areas around the world, it emerged today.

The charity revealed €58m had been donated in a series of campaigns, including €26.5m for the thousands of communities affected by the Asian tsunami.

The agency’s overall income reached €83.3m, an increase of 54% on the previous year, but Chris Flood, the Government’s special envoy to the Indian Ocean tsunami hit area warned money had to reach those in most need.

“Given the scale of the resources that have been made available it is critically important that our best efforts are applied to reassure taxpayers and donors that the resources are being well applied and in particular are assisting those most in need of help,” he said.

The Government allocated €21m to the disaster appeal while NGOs raised more than €80m to help those affected.

Justin Kilcullen, Trócaire director, thanked all the donors who had helped with appeals, including the clergy.

“This included €26.5m for the tsunami in Asia, and €8.6m for our emergency appeal on Darfur, Sudan. Our thanks go to all our donors and particularly the bishops and clergy, who organised two major national appeals on our behalf along with the Lenten campaign,” he said.

“Trocaire funded 669 projects in 61 countries during this period and also worked in Ireland and internationally on policy and advocacy, carrying out original work on aid, debt, trade and global governance.”

The report noted the Trócaire/2FM 24-hour Fast campaign in February/March raised almost €1.5m, followed by €8.6m to help displaced families in the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan.

The fifth annual pre-Christmas Global Gift campaign raised €3.1m, bringing the total raised since its inception to almost €11m, the report noted. Over 81,000 gifts were purchased for distribution in developing countries in Central America, Africa and Haiti.

Conor Lenihan, minister of state with responsibility for overseas development aid, is to bring a White Paper on the issue – the first in the history of the State – to Cabinet over the coming months.

A series of public meetings chaired by Conor Brady, Irish Times editor emeritus, were held over the last few months to discuss what shape development aid should take.

Writing in Trócaire’s annual report, Mr Brady suggested the media should give more time to discussing development aid. He noted news organisations should commit 0.7% of coverage to the issue in the same way that the Government is asked to give 0.7% of GNP.

He asked: “Does anybody in the news media even think about development aid and issues of world poverty, hunger and disease without having Bono or Bob Geldof bawling in their ears?”

Mr Brady noted there was deep despair among NGOs about the media’s failure to get beyond short-term reaction to humanitarian crises.