Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I extend my sympathies to all the Haitian people who have lost loved ones and suffered catastrophe. I acknowledge in particular the family of Andrew Grene, the Concern employee, and all the United Nations employees who have lost their lives. Every death is a tragic loss and it is awful to see the images on our television screens. One must commend the media, particularly RTE television and radio, for driving home the terrible extent of the disaster. It is unfortunately the case that it is once again one of the poorest parts of the world upon which this catastrophe has fallen. It is akin to the population of Cork and Galway together being wiped out overnight.

Haiti was struggling long before this earthquake occurred. It is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with 80% of the population living below the poverty line and 54% in abject poverty. Moreover, approximately 38% of the population are under 14 years of age. Some 3,000 troops of the United Nations stabilisation force were based in Port-au-Prince before this disaster occurred. Irish Aid agencies and voluntary groups have been active there for some time, and a house-building exercise was recently undertaken by Irish volunteers. I understand Mr. Denis O'Brien is heavily involved there in a telecommunications capacity.

One issue on which there is no policy difference in this House is in respect of the work done by Irish Aid. When I became spokespersons for foreign affairs, spokesperson rather, although I accept I do the work of two or three, one of the areas where I considered there might be a gap was in Irish aid funding. Anecdotally, one hears about the wastage of money. We have a good system in place. The Minister of State, since he came to office, and his officials are to be commended on the work they do. While it is unacceptable, some things may go wrong or funds can go astray but what is important is that once problems are detected, they are dealt with and systems are put in place to ensure they do no recur. We should plough on with the current policy. The points I raise are in the context of being constructive in terms of how we move forward.

The Minister of State referred to criticism about the speed of the international response. That is something that will come up time and time again. Templates can be put in place but I do not know if a perfect template can be devised for disaster response. We have a modern democracy but we were slow to react when we had snow over Christmas. It took us several days to respond. One can imagine the difficulties one encounters when one is faced with a country many thousands of miles away with an infrastructure that was almost non-existent and that which existed was knocked out, especially the communications system, the airport and the port, which left access by means of a poor road from a neighbouring country.

The Minister of State can play a role at European Union level to drive the impetus to establish an international template for disasters. He referred in his speech to the fact that we have learned from the tsunami. I am sure that is the case. It is difficult, however, to put in place a structure and control when a disaster occurs. Things cannot be righted overnight, but a certain system and broad a template could be put in place. I am not familiar with the scheme that was put in place and how we can learn from it. The one thing we learn from history is that things keep recurring. We saw that in terms of the economy. When one reflects on events in the cold light of day it is as clear as the nose on one's face what will happen. Natural disasters will occur, perhaps not tomorrow or the next day, but they will happen in the future. We must examine the response systems we have in place for them.

I acknowledge the role of the Americans. In recent years they have received much bad press in this House. It is important to acknowledge the work they have done. They have positioned approximately 10,000 troops to assist in Haiti. It can be beneficial if an existing structure is superimposed on a place such as Haiti. I saw on television that one local resident said the system there had failed and that the country should be occupied. I am sure that is not the solution but it is of benefit if one can bring organisation and command and control to a disaster area such as Haiti.

The Minister of State referred to the many calls he received to his office. I am somewhat critical of the Government even though I am hugely supportive of the concept of the rapid response corps which was mentioned in the White Paper on Irish aid some years ago. My understanding is that it comprises approximately 150 people with expertise who are generally drawn from the public sector and possibly some aid agencies, but I am not sure about that. That corps could be greatly expanded. There are many people in the private sector who are keen to assist in Haiti at the moment but it is difficult to fit them into the existing structure. We need to consider opening up the rapid response corps to the private sector and increase its strength to up to 3,000.

I am sure that if the Minister advertised for volunteers to go to Haiti, without any difficulty there would be a queue outside the Irish Aid centre on O'Connell Street as far back as the gates of the Phoenix Park and the North Circular Road. We must harness that potential in a productive way. There is no point in people arriving at the airport with tents on their backs seeking to link up with people to go to Haiti as that would give rise to as much difficulty as it would solve. Perhaps the Minister of State would consider expanding the panel of people on whom he depends for the rapid response corps. ESB personnel went to France when power difficulties were experienced there some years ago. The rapid response corps could be composed of different categories that could be used according on the needs of each disaster, for example, medical technicians, engineering technicians and communications technicians. However, the system would have to be formalised at home before one could send out people to various areas.

A second aspect of this matter relates to the European Union battle groups that caused much contention in the first and second referenda on the Lisbon treaty. They were depicted as tanks rolling into Baghdad. I can see my Labour Party colleagues empathise with that image.

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