Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. The are two words which come to mind, namely "harrowing" and "humbling," when one listens to what people such as Dr. Fitzpatrick have been doing in countries such as Sierra Leone as we sit in the comforts of the developed western world. I visited Sierra Leone to examine it as a post-conflict country. It faces a range of issues, difficulties and problems in terms of health and education, and is now dealing with ebola, which compounds the other problems.

I refer to the need to consider the ebola issue in terms of other major health issues such as malaria and the number of people dying from starvation. One of the witnesses referred to Irish Aid reconsidering the reallocation of funding. I do not think we can afford to reallocate current funding. Rather we need to find additional funding. We cannot afford to take money from areas where it is badly needed.

I read about inefficiency at local level and slowness at international level. I ask the witnesses to comment on the national level in the countries affected. One of the witnesses said the world knows how to stop this. Do we know what causes ebola and why a particular strain is affecting west Africa?