Overseas Development Aid
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
============================================================

Neale Richmond (FG), Dublin Rathdown

It is really important to mention that over the last number of years Nepal has, unfortunately, been the victim of a number of very serious natural disasters. In 2023, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck, killing 153 people and injuring 400, at which time Ireland, through the Red Cross and Red Crescent, contributed to an EU aid package of €2 million. In April 2015, a more devastating earthquake of 7.2 magnitude struck just north west of Kathmandu. It was the worst in 80 years and over 8,700 people died. In response, Ireland directly provided €1.6 million in humanitarian response.
I note the Deputy's comment that, following very real youth protests and what was a sort of Gen z movement, we saw in March the election of 275 members and a new Prime Minister, a man younger than me, from the national independent party. I actually met his predecessor this week last year in Seville. The undertaking, regardless of who the leadership comprises in Nepal, is that Ireland will continue to be a partner at a bilateral level and also, crucially, at a European level and there is a great opportunity for that in due course.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02