Ms Jane-Anne McKenna:

As Mr. McQuillan said in response to Deputy Durkan's question on the security situation and the different factions, we are not in a position to comment on what is happening at that level. Although these things are happening, our priority is that we must be on the ground to treat those affected by this. That is our key priority: regardless of where they are, we should have access to them. I have highlighted the camp situation in South Sudan because we have full access there but the international community has been slow to respond and put in place the necessary resources for those who are there now, and have been there for up to a year. There are moves under way outside the humanitarian perspective but there is still a huge amount of work to be done to alleviate suffering.

Deputy Byrne alluded to some of the other organisations working on the ground. We are in the camps in the Upper Nile region; we are the largest medical actor there and we run all the medical activities in the different camps. The UNHCR is responsible for camp management and has been co-ordinating with its implementing partners but we have come across the issue of commitments made by implementing partners not being fulfilled, such as the commitments for water and sanitation infrastructure. That is a result of the implementing partners not having enough resources or funding to carry out the work they have committed to. As a result there is a backlog in service provision and we stepped in to fill the gap.

Senator Walsh spoke about the development element of South Sudan a year after independence and asked if the region itself could develop in a sustainable fashion. The terrain where the camps are located is very inhospitable. It is also difficult to deal with 170,000 people.

That is the reason we mentioned the contingency planning element. Although we know there may be more refugees coming after the rainy season, there is still no contingency planning being done to consider where the 170,000 people will go in advance of the next rainy season. Since June a number of the camps have become flooded and as a direct result we have seen the outbreak of disease. Contingency planning is needed. We in MSF have noted that South Sudan has been in a constant state of emergency for the past 20 to 30 years. There is a need for an effort both on the development side and on the emergency side, which must happen in parallel. With the onset of independence it became evident that development could really ramp up, which is great, but it should not be forgotten that emergency needs must be met as well. We advocate that there should still be sufficient funds invested in the emergency element to deal with the daily ongoing crises as well as the development aspect.

One of the reasons that scale-up has been slow is that a number of the organisations working on the ground are engaged in more developmental activities and so it is very difficult to switch gears automatically into emergency mode. We know it is difficult for people to engage in more emergency activity at ground level. I know Senator Michael Mullins referred to other more powerful governments that could potentially have more influence in this region. One of the reasons it is important to highlight this to the Irish Government is that MSF is known as an independent neutral organisation which is impartial to government influence. We recognise that Irish Aid has been supporting us. Irish Aid has a number of programmes and is very independent in terms of the aid that it distributes on the ground. It is key for us, when discussing these issues with the relevant governments, that there is no agenda arising from the situation on the ground and that we are advocating from a humanitarian perspective for the priorities that need to be met. There should be no other agenda in terms of the situation in the north and south of Sudan.