The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Mr Dermot Ahern, will travel to Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka to review the situation in the tsunami-hit region.
Summit declaration
The Minister is expected to arrive on Sunday and will be accompanied to south-east Asia by the heads of Irish charities Concern, Trocaire, Goal and the Irish Red Cross.
In a statement issued this evening the Mr Ahern said, "The Government's priority is to ensure that the resources committed by the Government and the people are targeted at those in greatest need. This is about more than resources; we must ensure that our relief is used in an effective and targeted way.
Earlier today, world leaders today welcomed debt relief for countries hit by the tsunami disaster and supported the creation of an early warning system in the Indian Ocean in a declaration at the end of a one-day crisis summit in the Indonesian capital Jakarta today.
The statement was issued by the 26 nations and groups attending the summit hosted by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
It requests the United Nations to mobilise the international community and calls for stronger co-ordination and co-operation of relief efforts in the aftermath of the magnitude-9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that has killed nearly 150,000 people throughout the region, and left more than 1.5 million homeless.
"We expressed our continuing commitment to assist the affected countries and their people in order to fully recover from the catastrophic and traumatic effects of the disaster, including in their mid- and long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts," the declaration said.
The group also asked the United Nations "to convene an international pledging conference for the sustainability of humanitarian relief efforts" and explore establishing a standby arrangement "for immediate humanitarian relief efforts".
More than $4 billion have so far been pledged to help tsunami victims and rebuild the stricken Asian region, with Japan, Britain, the United States, Germany and France also calling for a freeze on debt repayments by tsunami-hit nations.
The declaration states that the delegates "welcome the initiative of several countries on the moratorium of payments of the external debt burden of the affected countries".
"We underlined the need to co-ordinate better and ensure that those contributions would be effective and sustainable, to truly address the suffering of the victims and to prevent such a calamity from recurring," the statement said.
The delegates also agreed on the establishment of a regional tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia region.
At the summit UN Secretary General Kofi Annan declared they were in a "race against time" and he exhorted countries that have pledged more than $4 billion in aid to come forward immediately with nearly a billion dollars in cash.
Mr Annan's appeal followed an assessment by the World Health Organisation that survivors could succumb to cholera and dysentery unless they received clean water and other basic services by the end of the week.
Annan appealed at the summit for $977 million to cover basic humanitarian needs for an estimated 5 million people in the next six months.
"What happened on 26 December, 2004, was an unprecedented global catastrophe. It requires an unprecedented global response ... It is a race against time," he said.
Governments around the world have pledged more than $4 billion in aid so far and private groups, corporations and individuals another $660 million.