H.E. Dr. Sinéad Walsh:

One does not necessarily want to single out individuals but I am very glad that Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan mentioned Sr. Mary Sweeney. If there is any individual who deserves to be singled out, it is Sr. Mary because her work is absolutely extraordinary.

I wish to assure the committee that we received additional money in 2014 and again for this year just in respect of the fight against Ebola. None of the money relating to the emergency nutrition and other programmes members saw in action in 2012 is less needed now than it was then. If fact, it is required even more at this stage. Fortunately, the Government has been able to provide additional funds. Despite the challenges the economy continues to face, it was able to provide a rare and fairly significant increase in the budget relating to Sierra Leone and Liberia. This did not happen in the context of countries to which we provide aid. The additional funding in question was very much allocated in respect of the fight against Ebola. Our annual budget for 2015 is €13.5 million, up from €9.8 million in 2014.

I really want to agree with the point in respect of community engagement. I remain of the view that we are still not doing this enough in Sierra Leone. It is one of the lessons to be learned from our work in Liberia but we are struggling to see how we might implement what we have learned in Sierra Leone. Of course, we should have done it better from the very beginning. Oxfam is pushing this point very hard. When the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, and I attended an EU conference in Brussels a couple of weeks ago, Oxfam, the International Rescue Committee, IRC, and other organisations really highlighted the need for such engagement. Looking back, and as already stated, this is one of the areas in respect of which we should have done a much better job.

On the holding centres, I believe we have turned the corner since December. Everybody who contracts Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia receives the best quality care that is available. We no longer have the type of holding centres to which Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan referred. There are now high-quality treatment centres. In the past, if people were unlucky they ended up on the original holding centres. Fortunately, the enormous human rights implications relating to the latter are now behind us. As already stated, Ireland is contributing to the maintenance of the newer type holding centres.

In the context of why the outbreaks in Mali and Senegal were contained, I return to the point I made earlier in reply to what the Chairman stated. They were contained because there was a huge international response and this came about in a timely manner. The latter was not the case in respect of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. They were also contained because the health systems in Mali and Senegal are stronger and more developed. These were in a position to absorb the international support on offer and move quite quickly to fight the disease. I return to the fact that it is a question of what the international community needs to learn in order to ensure that this never happens again.

I completely agree with what Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan said in respect of China and Cuba. We must also give huge credit to the UK for its work in Sierra Leone and the US in the context of its efforts in Liberia. The level of resources the UK and the US - as the two lead donors - have allocated in respect of those two countries is really extraordinary. It has been a very good team effort and it has involved contributions from those countries to which the Deputy referred and which one might not necessarily think had access to so many supplementary resources. The lead donors have also done a huge amount.

I hope I have covered all of the Deputy's points.