Ireland spends record €330m to tackle humanitarian crises as others cut aid budgets

The Trump administration’s pledge of $2 billion to United Nations humanitarian programmes is a fraction of what the United States used to give. But as European governments cut aid budgets to fund more defence spending, Washington remains the world’s biggest humanitarian aid donor.

Why Ireland’s aid matters more than ever

When the United States announced a $2 billion pledge for UN humanitarian aid on Monday, it added a warning that UN agencies must “adapt, shrink or die” and said its money could only be spent in certain countries. The sum is meagre compared to the $17 billion Washington gave just three years ago but Tom Fletcher, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was not complaining.

“A month ago, I would have anticipated the number would have been zero,” he told reporters.

“So I think, before worrying about what we haven’t got, I’d like to look at the millions of people whose lives will be saved, whose lives will be better because of this contribution.”

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Donald Trump made sweeping cuts to foreign aid when he returned to the White House this year and dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAid). The US contributed almost $3.4 billion to UN humanitarian efforts in 2025, 14.6 per cent of global funding, making it the world’s biggest donor, ahead of the European Commission, which gave $3.1 billion or 13.4 per cent.

In the past, the US has accounted for more than a third of UN humanitarian aid and Trump’s cuts had an immediate impact on programmes to combat hunger and disease. OCHA said that the shortage of money meant its help reached 25 million fewer people this year than in 2024.

But the US is not alone in cutting aid, and a number of European countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands and Britain, have cut development and humanitarian aid budgets. They justified these cuts on the basis that they had to spend more on defence, so that the poorest people in the world will share the burden of Europe’s ballooning arms budgets.

Ireland spent a record €330 million in direct response to humanitarian crises this year and as others give less, Ireland’s contribution to the UN humanitarian aid budget has become more important. The $258.1 million Ireland contributed to UN humanitarian programmes in 2025 represented 1.1 per cent of global funding, compared to last year’s $201 million which made up 0.5 per cent of the total.

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