Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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82. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the actions his Department has taken to address the ebola virus epidemic in west Africa; the specific projects funded by his Department in this area; the risk this epidemic poses to Europe and Ireland; the actions being taken to reduce this risk; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37717/14]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Ireland is working directly in Sierra Leone and Liberia and internationally on a comprehensive and effective response to the ebola epidemic in west Africa.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the fact that the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, visited the region and the substantial funding he provided. Hopefully, he will be able to provide more funding to assist in the very desperate situation. Has the Italian Presidency organised a special meeting of the Council of Ministers on national development to deal with the issue, help in co-ordination and ensure the funding provided by the EU and the individual countries is put to best effect? There is always an important role to ensure the public is conscious that the political system is reacting in a positive manner with the greatest possible urgency. Last week, I saw a statement attributed to the Italian Presidency and, unfortunately, it was more about doing something mañana than acting now. I hope the Minister and his colleagues, in every available forum, will ensure urgency is attached to the European response. The focus is shifting to what European countries are doing to ensure they are ready to deal with this very serious issue. Maybe it is a matter for the Minister for Health. Is there co-ordination at health service level throughout Europe on this very important issue?

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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We must see it in the context of where Ireland sits. Ireland is very much part of the international response which sits within the UN infrastructure where there is a special UN envoy, Mr. Anthony Banbury, who is on the ground in the three countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea in particular. I did not participate in the donor conference in London last week because I was in Sierra Leone. The President of Sierra Leone was unable to attend the conference and we met him in Sierra Leone.

The issue here is not the monetary response per se. I am confident that, through the UN infrastructure, the political willingness exists given the mandate the United Nations has to deal with this. From a European Union perspective, I tend to agree with the Deputy's point in that there needs to be a more robust political response at an EU level to ensure that, with the €180 million which is committed by the EU, there is a political pressure or diplomatic effort applied in those countries as well as a medical and humanitarian response to ensure those systems-----

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Two minutes.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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I request a little latitude, if I may - just 30 seconds.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I will get back to the Minister. Deputy Smith is entitled to ask another question.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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One of the suggestions made at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade was that there should be a national co-ordinated response to ensure medical or nursing personnel, if willing to travel to the region to use their skills and knowledge in that area, will be facilitated with leave of absence. Will that be considered? Naturally, the co-ordination of funding was raised. As I stated earlier, it was terrifying to listen to those who had been out there in a medical capacity trying to assist the people. We should take the opportunity to compliment sincerely all of those working out there at the coalface, particularly the Irish NGOs and officials from the Department.

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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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.