Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If Deputy Smith is talking about medical evacuations, there needs to be a greater degree of clarity such that when Irish people go out there to help in the effort, there is some degree of assurance that they can have a pathway back to the most appropriate treatment centre. The national response on this was discussed at Cabinet this morning. This will take an interdepartmental group because we need to ensure if there are persons coming back from west Africa who display symptoms that there is a clear pathway from their house or place of work directly to a fully staffed and equipped hospital - wherever that may be within the country - and that there is a clear protocol. That is something that is being discussed. It is a live issue as we speak.

If Sierra Leonean health care workers are not working on the ground, for instance, because they may not have been paid for a number of months, and if they do not have confidence in their own system on the ground, and I can only speak for Sierra Leone, it is difficult to ask an Irish front-line health care worker to work in those circumstances. That is where the UN co-ordinator, Mr. Banbury, is working. He is working with our ambassador and Irish NGOs, such as GOAL, Concern and Plan Ireland so that there is a cross-sectoral approach to dealing with this. I am not saying one takes it out of Sierra Leonean hands, but one manages and internationalises the effort. It is only in the past 72 hours that we are seeing a major ramping up of that effort. I assure the Deputy that this is being discussed in terms of an Irish response on the ground if somebody should contract the virus when on Irish soil.

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