The Catholic development agency Trócaire expects to raise €2. 5 million in collections for victims of the south-east Asian tsunami at Masses in Dublin, Down and Connor, Ferns, Clonfert, and Galway dioceses.
The Galway collection takes place this weekend, with collections in the other named dioceses on January 8th-10th. It is thought likely the remaining 21 Catholic dioceses on the island will hold similar collections over coming weekends.
Trócaire announced yesterday it had raised its allocation to help tsunami victims to €500,000. On St Stephen's Day, when the disaster struck, it made an immediate allocation of €100,000 to its Caritas partners in India and Sri Lanka. Trócaire's emergency co- ordinator, Ms Mary Healy, told The Irish Times yesterday that possibly three personnel would be sent to assist with relief work, at Caritas's request.
The head of Trócaire's international department, Mr Mike Williams, said yesterday it was essential the UN and the EU "take the lead in providing full support to the highly qualified and experienced agencies on the ground who are experts in dealing with natural disasters such as this".
Concern, a non-denominational agency, has increased also its commitment to the relief efforts, from €100,000 in the disaster's immediate aftermath, to €250,000. On Monday Concern sent a team of three to assess the situation in India's Tamil Nadu state, one of the most severely affected areas. It established that, as an immediate priority action, food kitchens needed to be set up.
GOAL has a team working in Nagabatttinum, the most seriously affected region in Tamil Nadu. GOAL is currently responsible for feeding 1,000 families there, but hopes to expand that to 10,000 families by the weekend.
It has also included Sri Lanka in its area of relief and is hoping to send a ship load of supplies to the Amdaman islands, off India's coast, as soon as the jetty is repaired.
GOAL's chief executive, Mr John O'Shea, said yesterday that donations to the agency had reached €200,000. He described the response as "fantastic" and "overwhelming". He attributed it to the power of television and the fact that "for the first time in my 27 years experience [of involvement with relief work], a tragedy was enacted in front of the world's eyes".
He commended the Government on the rapidity of its response and predicted this would be higher, due to public pressure. Generally he was optimistic that the international response to this disaster would, for once, be appropriate and on an acceptable scale.
Meanwhile thousands of euro are being donated to the Irish Red Cross in response to its appeal. Spokeswoman Ms Aoife MacEoin told The Irish Times yesterday that on Tuesday alone, €50,000 had been received in donations.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched an appeal worldwide for €32.3 million, for what the chief of the worldwide organisation, Marku Niskala, described as "the largest catastrophe" it had seen.
A Church of Ireland spokesman said they were "very pleased" with the response to an appeal by its bishops for donations to the Bishop's Appeal Fund, to help with relief.
The Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev John Neill, has urged prayers and "generous support" for the tsunami appeal.