THE GOVERNMENT HAS pledged to support efforts to locate missing Trinity professor Séamus Lawless, who fell on Mount Everest earlier this week.

The climber went missing at an altitude of around 8,300m, hours after he completed a lifetime ambition of reaching the peak of the world’s highest mountain.

An assistant professor at the university’s School of Computer Science, he was one of four Irish people who climbed Mount Everest as part of a group called ‘Ireland on Everest’ this month.

Speaking on This Week on RTÉ Radio 1 today, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said he had been in contact with the Bray man’s wife over the weekend.

“I have spoken to Pamela his wife on a number of occasions over the last 24 hours,” he said.

“She is a remarkable woman and she is going through a nightmare that many of us simply can’t imagine.”

Coveney also said that the government would help the Lawless family any way it could, and also appealed for the public to respect Pamela’s privacy as rescuers continue their search for her husband.

“We are willing to offer any support we can, either financial or organisational, she knows that,” he said.

A fundraising page set up on Friday night by the Trinity professor’s family has reached nearly a third of its €750,000 target.

Relatives of the 39 year-old father-of-one say insurers will not assist in the search, and have asked the public to help them raise money to gather a team of Sherpas to find him.

The page states that the family have “been left with no other option but to ask for assistance in raising funds to gather a team of expert Sherpas to locate and bring our beloved Shay home to Ireland”.

A vigil was also held at Trinity College for the missing professor on Saturday evening.