– More than 100 tons of Irish Aid emergency shelter supplies, including tents, blankets and tarpaulins arrived in the Philippines to assist thousands of families affected by Typhoon Haiyan. The Irish airlift, valued at €510,000 contains: 599 tents, 700 tarpaulins, 10,000 blankets, 880 ropes. The supplies are in addition to the emergency funding of €1 million towards the relief effort announced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Eamon Gilmore.

Announcing the dispatch of the emergency supplies, Minister for Trade and Development, Joe Costello T.D., said, “These essential supplies will be distributed by Plan Ireland, to alleviate the immediate needs of men, women and children affected by one of the most powerful storms ever recorded”. On hearing of the scale of the disaster, Minister Costello immediately authorised an airlift of emergency shelter items to the Philippines from Ireland’s pre-positioned stocks in the UN Humanitarian Depot in Dubai.