John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

On behalf of the Green Party, I offer my deepest sympathy to the people of Pakistan, Kashmir and Guatemala and the surrounding areas. The severe flooding in Central America has been overlooked. A deluge has been experienced in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua and army helicopters and aid trucks are ferrying food to villages in the Guatemala highlands, which remain isolated. Natural disasters will happen but there is a link between the recent hurricanes, including Hurricane Katrina, and climate change. Something must be done about this problem soon. The Government's response to the Kyoto Protocol has been irresponsible. We are part of the global community but the people affected by the recent disasters have not contributed substantially to the problem of climate change and global warming. Western countries, in particular the US, are contributing to the problem. The death toll following Hurricane Katrina is estimated at 14,000, although I have read other estimates of between 2,000 and 4,000. We are faced with this difficulty in both the US and Pakistan.

Many children were affected by the earthquake in Pakistan. Those of us who are parents find that the most traumatic element of such disasters. Pakistan ranks 135th of 177 countries on the UN human development list, yet one of the first news stories to emerge following the earthquake was that the nuclear installations and weapons were fine. It is obscene that so much is spent on weapons of mass destruction but not enough money is available to deal with serious natural disasters. While the Government has donated money, is this allocation in addition to the original development aid budget for 2005? How much is being donated?

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