merrion street

With the World Health Organisation expressing concerns regarding the acceleration of COVID-19, Colm Brophy T.D., Minister for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora, today underlined Ireland’s important contribution to the global COVID-19 response.

Minister Brophy said:

This virus is probably the biggest global challenge of our lifetime. To be safe at home in Ireland means that we must also work to help others be safe where they live too. That is why the Government, through Irish Aid, has invested €123 million to date in the international response to the pandemic, since being the first country to respond to the WHO’s global appeal last February.

That investment is helping save lives across the globe through strengthening health care systems, the provision of PPE, vaccine research and in ensuring that those most affected get access to food and other essentials.

Our support goes beyond money. Irish influence is helping shape the international response, with Irish officials leading the donors to both the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund as together they built their global emergency response strategy.

In Mozambique, Irish expertise is helping shape the Mozambican Government’s own COVID-19 response, building on a long-term relationship between the Embassy of Ireland in Maputo, the HSE and the Mozambican Health Ministry. This includes quality improvement training in 14 hospitals, with Irish experts remotely guiding the application of COVID-19 protocols. Irish diplomats are also organising the international donor support to the health systems in Liberia, Zambia as well as Mozambique.

Using the experience gained in Irish Aid’s effective response to the Ebola crisis, Irish Aid is supporting Concern Worldwide, GOAL and Trócaire to work in an innovative partnership with the European Union to strengthen basic health care in Sierra Leone and, in particular, to ensure that vulnerable teenage girls who are out of school are protected.

This experience which will stand to us when we take our seat on the Security Council in January, when the challenges arising from the pandemic will continue to resonate, particularly in conflict affected countries.