Ireland balances WHO Fund on US crisis

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Ireland increases its contribution to the World Health Organization this year to €9.5 million after the US said it will halt its contribution, pending a review

Simon Coveney, Ireland’s Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, announced the increased contribution in a tweet on April 16

Coveney wrote: “#Ireland strongly supports @WHO in efforts to coordinate a global response to combat #COVID19. So many countries rely on @UN expertise and capacity to save lives. Ireland is quadrupling our normal annual financial contribution to @WHO for 2020 to €9.5 million.”

The announcement to increase Ireland’s contribution comes a day after Coveney publicly slammed Trump’s decision to halt the US contribution as “indefensible.”

Additionally, Ireland’s Health Minister Simon Harris said in a tweet on April 15 that “any effort to undermine its [WHO’s] work is dangerous, illogical & harmful.”

The US is the largest contributor to the WHO and contributed about $553 million of the WHO’s $6 billion budget in 2019, according to The New York Times.

In response to Ireland’s announcement that it would be quadrupling its contribution, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General at the WHO, said:

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