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IRELAND HAS HANDED over €5 million and announced a further €2.5 million to help Syrians affected by the country’s five-year civil war.
Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan made the announcement today after meeting the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Christos Stylianides.
The €5 million will go towards the EU’s humanitarian response to the crisis. The €2.5 million will be paid out in humanitarian assistance through the UN and the Red Cross.
Flanagan said that his talk with the Commissioner had increased his concern about Syria, particularly the besieged town of Aleppo.
He said he was committing the funding to “enhance Ireland’s contribution to meeting the challenges the people of Syria face in accessing food, water and health care”.
“This will bring our total contribution to the Syria crisis since 2012 to over €62 million.
“Ireland remains committed to the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Every evening on our television screens we see the human toll which the unprecedented number and scale of humanitarian crises is taking, particularly in Aleppo right now.
“There is an onus on all of the international community to do what we can to help alleviate this human suffering and Ireland will continue to play its part.”
Last year, Ireland spend around €142 million on humanitarian aid across the world.
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That’s it, lads. You’ll get all the SJW praise for this stunt. Meanwhile, your 90 year old Granny is dying on a hospital trolley, sitting in her own piss because we can’t be bothered to fund hospitals. Fcuk this great little country of ours, and every ultra liberal rat in it.
If it wasn’t for Assad, all the Christians and other minorities in Syria would have been beheaded already by so called moderate sunni muslim foreign mercenary terrorists. But you won’t hear this on RTE.
# Homer, Comment of the Week right there, lad. Well spoken, 100% correct.
so 7.5m is enough to fit the hse issues across the country?
Funny, the last time I checked FF and FG could hardly be called liberal. Maybe burn a bondholder or two before cutting humanitarian aid to the civilian casualties of a proxy war between Russia and the USA.
7.5 million is more than enough to alleviate the suffering of countless people right here
Charity starts at home! Look after our own first!
Look after our own first? FF and FG have been looking after “their own” for nearly a hundred years. It’s what makes this country the basket case banana republic that it truly is.
@C Mc Gyver: … how much time or money do you donate to helping people in your community, as a matter of interest?
@ eyepopper you have no idea!
charity starts at home ignorance. money isn’t the problem with the health service. it’s how it’s been run and lack of resources. we are pumping in tens of millions every year into it and it just gets worse. anyway ye selfish gits there’s a catastrophic war going on, we give a tiny percentage of what we have to alleviate a small few problems out there and all you have to offer is whinging about it as if it were out of your own pocket. it’s neither liberal or leftist to think of the people of syria today. all u need do is look at the news.
@Homer’s imp son:
We spend the second highest amount in the world on health care, second only to the United States.
The one problem we definitely don’t have is lack of funding for health care.
What we have is massive inefficiencies due to parish pump politics (eg Waterford Hospital) as well as massively overpaying for drugs and consultants.
@C Mc Gyver: F*k all then?
Charity starts with those that need it the most.
@Andrew Corcoran: FG are definable far left. oh the deference and the liberal and socialist are huge.
Ireland spend 142 on humanitarian aid!!!!!!!!!
We give 632 Million to Africa every year,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, More than we have in the budget this year.
Sure give a Fiver to the pensioners in Ireland.
Priorities Priorities.
I know it’s mad. And I’ve been waiting on me council house for ages now. And I could do with an increase in me welfare too jaysus
I know and the fact the pensioners are getting bombed on a daily basis and on the verge of starvation as well really adds insult to injury, someone wake the government up am I right?!
I hope the money gets to those who need it most. I don’t trust many of those NGO’s. I wonder why.
Sur never mind Old age pensioners who will have nothing to heat they’re homes with this winter.
Never mind the families in Ireland who are
on the bread-line .
Never mind the people on hospital trollies around the country.
Let’s help everyone else.
Ah pi$$ off. There is enough money to spend on humanitarian aid. All of the people you have mentioned are better off than the people this money will hopefully go to.
Funny, even during the Celtic tiger the hse was a joke and pensioners were freezing to death in their homes. Don’t for one second think that by not giving humanitarian aid it would make one bit of difference.
@Brendan Hill: Tell that to the families of the two men who committed suicide in the last two days due to unbearable bank pressure over debt problems.
@Brendan Hill:
Foreign aid is about taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries.
@dave a sad story but there will always be sad miserable storys. This is about giving aid to people in a war torn country not about bank pressure.
@Crimson so so wise
The government should look after own people before giving 142 million to other countrys
Exactly, I mean just think how far that 142m would go, and the good it would do if we’d given it to Irish water, or German bankers.
To be honest, I think we look after some of our own people too well. The people who are complaining about this are more than likely those who sit on their arses on the dole. 4 million is peanuts compared to how much the hundreds of thousands of spongers cost us. Fact.
@Gavin Delves: did you support the bus strikes or luas stikes?
Because I see an awful lot of “lets look after our own” and the same time giving out about bus srikes and luas strikes when people here are actually trying to improve their life.
@Adam Laycock: Bus and Luas drivers holding working people to ransom to feed their own greed equated to a wealthy western country sending a relatively paltry amount of money to help innocent people suffering unimaginable hardship in what is the worst humanitarian crisis of our time?
Jesus Christ. A sense of perspective wouldn’t go amiss.
@Phil Blanc: You’re wasting your time Phil. It’s really peculiar. We can either try to solve the problems beyond our borders by using soft power like money or suffer the consequences of not doing so and seeing massive migratory movements to which the same people then respond by saying “How did this happen”.
One of the reasons we have the massive migratory crisis is that many states cut aid to the UN and to refugee camps in areas like Lebanon. So instead the people came to the EU. And with war and global warning let me say you ain’t seen nothing yet! We can either try to help using appropriately directed money (and we could have a conversation about that) or do nothing and wait for the problem to arrive on our doorstep. The people arguing here for no aid are arguing a do nothing position. It’s a head in the sand approach. The same people will be outraged when migrants arrive in droves on our shores.
@emily davison: Yes i agree. We look after Apple, IW, NAMA, bankrupt developers, senior public servants, Dennis etc.
You got them named right, spongers.
@John R: “You’re wasting your time Phil.”
I know, but I can’t let people with views like these go unchallenged.
@John R, most rational comment I’ve seen. Spot on!!
I’d rather we pay to help them over there rather than pay to have them come here to Ireland. Unfortunately for us our government intended on doing both.
@James Odin: I would have thought you would welcome more religious people to bump up the numbers against the no religions.
money given to the Syrian government doubt the people see much of it
Wonder does Assad’s wife still shop at Harrods?
@Val Rossi: yes she does. she has being seen around Seville row every now and again. no big deal realities. a few Egyptian head a balls in bt last week.
Seems very little to give for largest humanitarian crisis since WWII
@John003: It is very little. But angry racists shout the loudest, so…
Would wrote anything racist??
The humanitarian aid that Ireland gives is very targeted and used very well. It doesn’t go to waste. You can argue that we can’t afford it but, lets face it, we are one of the richest countries in the world despite our problems. The children who are suffering in Syria now are not to blame for the quagmire and km delighted that we are giving a small amount to help them.
5 mill to the Eu crisis, so that less refugees and migrants get round reach here and 2 mill to un, England and USA’S lapdog though, I would rather pay more if it would help filter immigrants and refugees
Oh this will be good.
Let the hate flow, angry right-wingers. This is your time.
But first let us summarizse your position:
They are probably Muslim, we don’t like them.
We don’t want them coming here. We need to look after “our own” first.
But we’re not horrible people, we recognise they are in a bad situation and we should help them at home so they don’t come here… i mean so they can save their own country.
But, we shouldn’t spend money on supporting them n Syria either because we should look after “our own” first.
Grand job, ye dumbass xenophobes. What should be do then? Nothing? Yeah, that’ll work.
Well said Phil
@Phil Blanc: Agree!
Phil you are unhinged.
@Phil Blanc: You’re both right and wrong at the same time.
It’s 7.5 million of taxpayers money squandered. It won’t do much good if aid convoys and infrastructure such as roads or hospitals are constantly being bombarded. The situation in Syria is awful but we have more than enough problems of our own to deal with first.
What a human.
Too bad we cant cut off some of our dole spongers and give more to people who are actually in need.
@emily davison: Or we could send the 2.5 Billion that white collar crime costs the taxpayer every year. That’s a lot more than the 20 million SW fraud costs.
I personally don’t mind giving some of the 50% plus tax I pay to the Syrian people.. Anybody watching the news lately.??..not the bit about Kim Kardashian but look at the state of the hospitals, most of them have been blown up, operations are happening on the floor of a building site.. Jesus, mans inhumanity to man comes in so many shapes and forms
We allow the Americans through Shannon so, in my opinion, we owe something to the Syrians as an apology for our intervention
It’s only a tiny amount in the scheme of things! The Irish Greyhound Board received €14.8 million this year, and has received €213.3 million since 2001. Of course they are a worthy cause and need this money to prop them up far more than the struggling people of Syria!
Its great to see Ireland staying involved and commited to humanitarian aid
spending around €142 million on humanitarian aid across the world is great.
I hope were balancing that out with national aid but I dont know the figures
Government need to get their bloody act together and look after their own first
We have people sleeping on the streets here in our own country. We are putting people up in hotel rooms, we are not building any local authority houses, and we can give 7.5 m to Help Syria. I say charity begins at home.
Why ???
There is no money here for sick people who need treatment and who can go back to work and pay tax , thereby putting money back into the state to help someone else in the same situation , charity is great if the country can afford it but we can’t
i wonder how much usa has given
to the racists, donate as much as you hate. help their countries, help organisations and so on, to keep refugees and migrants away from you. maybe we should start a campaign with – “donare, keep those different to you, away from you”
It’s only right we should give,read Mark 12:41-44 and you will see why
@Daithi De Roiste: Yeah there’s a few passages in Lord of the rings that make a good case too.
Probably gave the money over to a branch of Al Nusra or to Al Qaeda eventually… I wonder who is supplying both sides with weapons and the money to buy them?
have your say