Mr. Barry Andrews:

I thank the Chairman and I also thank the committee for allowing us to be here. Ms Sinead O'Reilly, who is our global health adviser, has been introduced to the committee.

We have circulated a paper to members of the committee who will have an opportunity to read it later. I will pick out key issues that we wish to share.

I wrote to the committee on 22 August in seeking to appear before it to speak about the seriousness of the outbreak of ebola. This purpose is now redundant because everyone appreciates we are dealing with a crisis of international dimensions and an outbreak that is out of control. People understand this is a real and dangerous issue that requires co-ordinated responses at national and international level. This is evident in the significant announcements of the US Government in the past week or so, while today the British Government has announced a co-ordinated plan involving the National Health Service, NHS, and other key resources in the UK system. For the first time since 2000, the UN Security Council has passed a resolution on a health issue which underlines how seriously the outbreak is being taken. It is significant for organisations such as GOAL that there has been a call for greater non-governmental organisation, NGO, capacity in the affected areas and more medical practitioners and health officials. GOAL will try to rise to the challenge and I want to use this platform to call on Irish health workers, including doctors, paramedics and nurses, to come forward and assist in the effort, as this is what is required. Until now Save the Children, the Red Cross, the International Medical Corps and, particularly, Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF, have been at the sharpest end of the response, but other NGOs must now come out of their comfort zones. I take the opportunity to send a message to Irish health worker who wish to come to GOAL. We will talk to them because their help is desperately needed, if they have the capacity to assist in the coming months. We aim to assist in the effort, with our partners, the US and British Governments.

When I visited Sierra Leone last weekend, I saw the situation at first hand - our workers have been there since 1999 and 200 GOAL staff members are in place. They have been engaged in development work, as committee members saw on their visit two years ago. GOAL members of staff have now turned their work into an emergency response, although the work is difficult. However, it is even more difficult for workers in Liberia where the health system has almost completely collapsed. The thoughts of everyone at GOAL are focused on the Concern worker who passed away over the weekend in a suspected case of ebola. GOAL and Concern work closely together in Sierra Leone and have done so for many years.

Another purpose of this presentation is to call on the Irish Government to prepare and publish a national response plan. We have heard details of this plan today and appreciate the various moving parts of the response. The plan is encouraging. I had the good fortune to meet the ambassador in Freetown and she has had an influence on NGOs and the Government that goes far beyond the call of duty. One cannot help but be proud of her contribution. The Irish Government should publish a national response plan, which would be in keeping with what the World Health Organization and the UN Security Council requested. Earlier responses were based on earlier projections for the development of the disease. Two weeks ago the worst case scenario was 20,000 cases in the next six to none months, but this is expected to change significantly in the coming weeks. Yesterday a worst case scenario was outlined, based on the current trajectory, of 1.4 million cases. The Irish Government has done much up to this point, but the time is right for a national response plan that would pull together and deploy military, health and other resources. That is how we will fulfil our obligations to the multilateral organisations to which we belong.

During my brief visit to Sierra Leone I was in awe of the health workers from the Red Cross, Kings College, London and from MSF who I met on the aeroplane. Their total dedication and selflessness were evident. Occasionally the aid community gets a hard time which sometimes is deserved, but situations such as this, when individuals answer the call of a country in its darkest hour, show the aid community at its best.