Extra €520,000 aid for typhoon and earthquake victims

Taxpayers today pledged more than half a million euro to the victims of the typhoon and earthquake in southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Children whose lives have been devastated by the natural disasters will benefit from the funding, donated through Irish Aid.

Peter Power, Minister of State for Overseas Development, said the €520,000 funding was in addition to €5000,000 which was pledged earlier this month.

Mr Power said he was deeply concerned for the people who were affected by the recent natural disasters.

“In choosing our partners for this extra funding, I am directing our support to those agencies working closely with children, who are often most-severely affected by these types of disasters,” he added.

A total of €200,000 will go to Plan Ireland, working with children in the Philippines, around €150,000 will go to Unicef, and €170,000 to the Government’s development programme in Vietnam in response to a rapid assessment of the damage from Typhoon Ketsana in central Vietnam.