Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

The Government's decision to continue to make the facilities of Shannon available was taken after long and serious consideration. It is a decision taken in Ireland's best interests and does not mark a departure from existing practice extending over several decades. The Government believes that the entire international community must unite in ensuring that the long-suffering people of Iraq receive the humanitarian assistance they need to recover from this with the shortest possible delay and that the country can make a rapid transition to the reconstruction phase.

In relation to the humanitarian situation in Iraq, my thoughts and concerns are with the Iraqi civilian population caught up in this conflict. We are carefully monitoring the evolving scenario in Iraq in order to gauge the precise needs of those directly affected. Our primary focus is always on the most vulnerable sections of the population and especially on those whose capacities to cope have been severely eroded over the years. The impact of this conflict on women, children, the elderly and displaced persons is of particular concern to me. In order to target assistance to these sections of Iraqi society, Ireland has made significant contributions to UNICEF and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

In 2003 Ireland has contributed nearly €15 million to these agencies for their global operations, including emergencies. The funding has not been earmarked in order to give them the flexibility and fast delivery needed to improve effectiveness and save more lives. Our direct assistance to Iraq has been targeted at relief programmes in nutrition, water and sanitation, rehabilitation of health services and Iraqi refugees in Iran. Our partners in Iraq include Trócaire, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and UNICEF. I have recently approved funding of €500,000 to support emergency start-up costs for key Irish NGOs. The money will enable them to respond to major humanitarian crises in a more effective and timely manner. They will be able to either engage or scale up their response to this particular crisis, if they wish to do so.

Iraq's basic social fabric was under great strain before hostilities commenced. Its human development indicators have deteriorated rapidly in recent years. It has fallen from 96th place on the UN human development index in 1991 to 127th – no other country has fallen so far in that time. This deterioration manifests itself in higher rates of infant mortality, increased malnutrition, a high prevalence of diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections. The most immediate concern relates to 240,000 children in Iraq who have been undergoing nutritional rehabilitation as well as the 140,000 malnourished pregnant women in need of supplemental feeding. The number of low birth weight babies has increased fivefold in recent years, which indicates serious maternal malnourishment.