Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

Ireland was among the first countries to respond to the appalling disaster in South Asia. Within a few hours of the earthquake, €1 million was pledged towards immediate relief efforts in northern Pakistan and the surrounding regions. As the casualty figures rose dramatically, our response was increased to €5 million, placing Ireland as one of the highest donors to the disaster on a per capita basis. Ireland's rapid contribution has been warmly and broadly welcomed.

Ireland's pledge to the disaster has been fully committed. It is essential that pledges are honoured so that vital assistance can be delivered to save lives. Approximately €1.5 million of our assistance has been allocated to key UN humanitarian agencies, including UNICEF and the World Food Programme. Over €2.5 million has been allocated to non-governmental organisations such as Concern, GOAL, Oxfam, Plan Ireland and Trócaire, which are active in the provision of essential services on the ground. These services include the provision of food, health services, shelter, water and sanitation.

Logistically, this disaster is one of the toughest challenges faced by the UN and the international community. Some 15,000 villages were affected and many are in areas which are difficult to reach. We are continually monitoring the situation in the region and officials from my Department will conduct a technical mission to the areas affected to meet with our partners on the ground and to report on the issues facing the region. Ireland will be represented at the reconstruction conference planned to take place in Islamabad on 19 November next.

The updated UN "flash appeal" for the region has called for nearly $550 million in funding for immediate relief needs. A little over €130 million has been pledged to date. Some of the pledges made by donors have yet to materialise into confirmed contributions. Even if all the pledges are confirmed, that still leaves a very considerable shortfall. I support President Musharraf's call for more generous assistance, specifically from Islamic, EU and OECD states. I have stressed the urgency of the provision of further aid and the importance of honouring pledges to my EU counterparts at a meeting of EU Development Ministers which was hosted by the British Presidency in Leeds in the past few weeks.

It will take much analysis and probably the benefit of considerable hindsight to understand why one crisis may generate huge public support while another suffers a shortfall. We may never know the full answer to this. The international community's response to the tsunami disaster was overwhelming and very generous. However, there are many humanitarian crises in the world at any one time. They generate various levels of support. Regrettably some become "forgotten" crises. That is why Ireland is a strong advocate of the principles and good practice of good humanitarian donorship or GHD. By leading donors, including Ireland, this initiative seeks to ensure the response to humanitarian crises is based purely on needs assessment and allocated according to the principles of independence, neutrality, humanity and impartiality.

Ireland also supports the moves by the UN to strengthen the international response to humanitarian crises. The number and scale of natural disasters this year reinforces the need for global resources to be mobilised and deployed rapidly to bring humanitarian relief on a large scale to anywhere in the world. Ireland has been actively focussing on how we can better respond to such emergencies.

Internationally, Ireland supports the enhancement of the UN's central emergency relief fund and I have pledged €10 million to that end.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

This will create a new grant-based fund that will allow UN agencies to respond more immediately and effectively in the face of a sudden on-set of a disaster. Work is also continuing at EU level to improve civil protection and rapid response capability through the tsunami follow-up action plan. The further development of rapid response capacity must complement and support the UN's primary role as coordinator in humanitarian disasters. At the national level, we are examining ways in which the Government's response to disasters and emergencies can be enhanced through a more operational role. That work is being actively pursued.

With regard to the contribution of other donors, the UN financial tracking system maintains information on donors' contributions to UN appeals and more broadly on donors' contributions to particular emergencies. According to the information available to my Department in relation to the South Asia earthquake, the per capita donor contribution to date is set out in a table which I have made available to Deputies.

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