Over €6.5m allocated for Iraq relief effort

The Government has allocated more than €6

The Government has allocated more than €6.5 million in humanitarian and recovery assistance to Iraq since 2003, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

A spokesman said the focus of the aid funding was "on meeting the basic needs of the most vulnerable Iraqis, especially women and children".

The Government initially pledged €3 million at the Donors' Conference on Iraq in Madrid in October 2003. Funding has been made available to non-governmental organisations, international humanitarian organisations and UN agencies "to meet the most pressing needs of Iraq's poor".

Funding recipients have included the World Food Programme, the Red Cross, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Concern, Goal and Trócaire.

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Last year Minister of State Conor Lenihan approved €250,000 for the Amar Foundation, in support of emergency primary healthcare for Marsh Arabs. The foundation was started by Ms Emma Nicholson in 1992, after the first Gulf War, in response to the plight of the Shia of the southern marshlands of Iraq.

Mr Lenihan also approved €80,000 for Trócaire in support of the NGO Co-ordination Committee in Iraq, an autonomous body which aims to promote information-sharing and co-ordination.