Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last week, at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, representatives of GOAL and Doctors without Borders presented a frightening and horrific picture of what is happening in west Africa. We know that the current ebola outbreak has caused the deaths of at least 3,000 people and west Africa is experiencing the biggest outbreak of this virus ever known. The World Health Organization predicts there will be 20,000 cases by early November. Does the Minister think there is an adequate European response to this crisis? Is there an adequate response by the international community to this serious issue? It is difficult to have confidence when it is known the World Health Organization is the object of criticism, quite rightly, in regard to the delay of three months in identifying this particular virus.

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