Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Ba mhaith liom comhbhrón ó chroí a dhéanamh thar chionn Sinn Féin agus thar mo chionn féin le clann Andrew Grene a fuair bás sa crith talún i Haiti. Bhí sé ag obair ansin mar cuntóir speisialta do cheannasaí na Náisiúin Aontaithe i Haiti. Déanaim, dar ndóígh, comhbhrón ó chroí chomh maith le gach clann agus le stát Haiti é féin agus le aon duine a chaill gaol sa tragóid mhór atá tar éis tarlú agus atá fós ag tarlú i Haiti.

Last Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti, measuring 7 on the Richter scale, was a tragedy of epic proportions. Like millions of other people, I have been watching the unfolding humanitarian crisis there with a sense of horror and helplessness. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon has described it as the worst disaster in decades. Now that we have seen the full scale of this tragedy we would agree about the scale of the disaster. Up to 200,000 people are feared dead, many more are injured and some are still trapped in the rubble. The UN has confirmed that 37 of its staff were killed, 150 injured and 300 are missing. Up to 1.5 million people have been made homeless in a very short period. This has happened not as a result of a war that was waged over months but it happened in seconds following this event. The full scale of the tragedy is still unfolding as people move out of the capital and see the effects of disaster. There have also been aftershocks and the scale of the aftershock yesterday with possibly more to come is worrying.

The UN has estimated that 3 million people in need of aid and food. Haiti was one of the poorest countries in the region, which was totally dependent on the UN and other food aid, and added to that it has now suffered this environmental disaster. The figures are staggering and it is hard to capture that scale of the disaster. Some sections of the media have managed to do so. It brings into perspective the effects of the flooding that occurred here in recent months. Considering what people here have gone through, their response to this disaster has been tremendous. People understand that it does not matter how bad we think things are here, there are people who are much worse off. There has also been a huge response to this disaster from countries throughout the world. Large donations of money have been pouring in from all over the world and that is to be welcomed. The World Food Programme has pledged 15,000 tonnes of food and the UN has also stepped up to the mark.

Millions of euro in aid has been given to Haiti and the response by the Government has also been tremendous. In addition to the €20 million already donated to he European emergency fund, more is pledged. While I may be critical of the approach of some Irish aid organisations, the response of those organisations that have been actively working on the ground and who understood the scale of poverty in Haiti has also been tremendous. I encourage people to help them in whatever way possible. These organisations have been struggling to cope because of the economic downturn, yet they managed to step up to the plate and have their volunteers in place ready to deliver aid.

While the response of the international community has been extremely generous, the aid is only stating to trickle down to some of the people affected. It is a pity that has taken so long. That is one of the criticisms of the response and one of the features following every natural disaster. I recall during the debate following the tsunami a few years ago we asked why did it take so long for aid to be delivered to the people in Sri Lanka. The world has to get to grips with that issue. That is one of the reasons we have the United Nations. It is also one of the reasons we need a civil rather than a military response, a point to which I will return. Within the western world, the rich part of world, we require to have on stand-by a better, quicker and more urgent response to natural disasters.

Many of the earthquake victims have been left to fend for themselves. The relief has been hampered by problems such as the lack of coordinated planning and infrastructure within Haiti, which has not helped matters. There also has be something of a state of paralysis among some of the agencies and the commentators about a much hyped security problem - I believe it is much hyped - in the capital and outside it. Earthquake survivors have been left to fend themselves because aid has not reached them. In those circumstances people will scavenge for food. This is survival. Aid is not available. Some people call this looting but it is survival. A refusal to deliver aid to those areas exacerbates the problems in those areas.

I urge people to read an article in the today's edition of the The Guardian by Ingio Gilmore, a journalist, who has managed to get into Haiti. The article states:

As a member of the media covering the tragedy in Haiti, it's with a sense of alarm and astonishment that I've witnessed how some senior aid officials have argued for withholding aid of the utmost urgency because of sensational claims about violence and insecurity, which appeared to be based more on fantasy than reality.

This is a good article. It is critical of GOAL, undeservedly so in some ways, but the journalist has simply reported what the leader of that agency has said in this respect. I have seen such reports in the media including on RTE. A few nights ago there was coverage of the reporting of violence and gangs there but Charlie Bird then reported that there was no violence. Who is one to believe, one's own person on the ground or a story that is being created to instill a sense of instability and insecurity and justify hundreds and thousands of soldiers being put on the streets, an issue to which I will return?

The article also states:

Any violence is localised and sporadic; the situation is desperate yet not dangerous in general. Crucially, it's not a war zone; it's a disaster zone - and there appears to have been little attempt to distinguish carefully between destructive acts of criminality and the behaviour of starving people helping themselves to what they can forage. For Haitians and many of those trying to help them, the overriding sentiment is that a massive catastrophe on this scale shouldn't have to wait for aid because blanket security is the absolute priority.

It has been tremendous to see the work the Haitians have been doing to pull themselves together and it shows that human beings have a capacity to pull together and overcome adversity. Heroic efforts have been made by aid agencies and those on the ground to try to overcome the effects of the disaster and to start planning for the future because people cannot continue to live in tents and buildings that have half collapsed. The difficulties have raised questions about the ability of the international community to organise a relief effort of this magnitude. One of the factors that has contributed to the scale of the disaster was the lack of proper infrastructure and proper building practices in Haiti in the first instance. It is one of the poorest countries in the region and before the earthquake 80% of the population was unemployed and 60% of the people were living in abject poverty. There were major problems in Haiti before the disaster, much of that has contributed to the chaos in the first few days after it.

Since achieving independence form the French in 1808, Haiti has had a turbulent history of unstable government and foreign intervention that has left the economy in a weak state. It only produces 40% of the food it needs and up to last week more than half of Haitians lived on only $1 a day. There are very few paved roads and minimal utilities. Since 2004, when President Aristide was overthrown in a violent coup and the country was convulsed into violence by rival gangs vying for power, order has been maintained because of UN interventions.

As if this were not bad enough, there have been a number of other natural disasters in recent years. Severe flooding in 2004 left 2,000 dead. In September 2004, Hurricane Jeanne left 3,000 dead because of flooding. In 2005, more people were killed and much destruction caused by Hurricane Dennis. Previously, in 1998, hundreds had been killed in violent storms and hurricanes. That was what the Haitian Government already had to cope with.

The weakness of the Haitian economy has meant that investment in infrastructure has not been sufficient. That is one of the key issues that will need to be dealt with when we are past the immediate aftermath of the latest disaster. Haiti and its infrastructure will need to be rebuilt and that will require long-term investment, not just a disaster fund. The collapse of public buildings such as the Parliament building and much other Government infrastructure in Port-au-Prince was one reason for the initial lack of co-ordination among the Haitians themselves. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Red Cross found there were no state ambulances. That puts into perspective what the aid agencies and other bodies are attempting to deal with when they get there.

I pay tribute to all those who are contributing towards the rescue effort and I encourage people, if at all possible, to contribute more. The agencies are performing a great service under the most trying circumstances. However, there are some countries that seem to be treating the disaster as a PR exercise, and we must ask why these nations were not doing more to help Haiti before this disaster, in view of the fact that some of them are former colonial powers which are largely responsible, through their actions over centuries, for the decline in states such as Haiti and have profited from the injustice of colonialism. They should be providing more aid on an ongoing basis and not just in the event of a natural disaster.

I also wish to highlight the positive role being played by other countries in the area. For example, Cuba, one of Haiti's neighbours, had 400 medical staff stationed in Haiti even before the earthquake, and they have managed to keep the hospitals open as well as setting up field hospitals and so on. This type of attitude and the solidarity and generosity from the Cubans and others has been replicated in Ireland.

There is too much reliance on the armed forces in responding to international crises, and we must consider the implications of this for national sovereignty and sensibilities. In particular, when we consider the role of the USA in Haiti, I find it questionable that it should be in charge of the overall effort. The UN needs to assert its authority and ensure that the US troops remain for only as long as required in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, allowing the UN to take over as quickly as possible. Haiti must be rebuilt properly, with a sustainable economy and a sustainable infrastructure. Otherwise, we will be revisiting this issue at some stage in the future.

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