Statement by President Higgins following meeting with Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organisation
Date: Mon 23rd Jun, 2025 | 16:42
President Michael D. Higgins today welcomed the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, to Áras an Uachtaráin.
Dr. Tedros and the President took the opportunity to discuss a number of issues including the importance of today’s meeting of EU Foreign Ministers and the urgent need for an immediate strategy to address the issue of clean water, access to medicines, food and other aspects of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
In a statement following the meeting, President Higgins said,
“At our meeting today, I took the opportunity of congratulating Dr. Tedros on the recent conclusion of the Pandemic Agreement negotiations which provided a welcome example of the essential possibilities of multilateralism.
Through his important work with the WHO, Dr. Tedros gives us hope in what are the most difficult of times. The WHO deserves our unreserved support and so I was pleased to reaffirm Ireland’s support and noted that Ireland has committed €30 million to aid lifesaving work in Sudan, Gaza and elsewhere, for which we can be very proud. I also noted that Ireland is now the third largest donor of the WHO’s Contingency Fund for Emergencies.
We further discussed the disastrous situation across Gaza, the distressing shortage of drinking water, continued failure to adequately provide humanitarian aid and the fact that Gaza has now the highest numbers of child amputees per-capita in the world.
We noted with regret the withdrawal of the United States from the WHO and the resulting tragic impacts on some of the world’s most vulnerable and marginalised people, including affecting those with HIV in South Africa.
The abandoning of the long-established principles of international law only deepens the vital need for the international multilateral institutions take action.
I assured Dr. Tedros of Ireland’s continued support for the WHO, and for my own continued commitment on issues of food security and thanked Dr. Tedros for his moral leadership."