Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and congratulate him on his appointment. I am sure responding to issues like this will be grist to his mill however unpalatable are the events that lie behind it.

Scientifically, the reasons violent weather events occur are fairly well known to us though philosophically and theologically probably less so. There is no easy, political answer as to how they should be dealt with. A number of years ago, the United States, the most prosperous nation in the world and most open and democratic, failed to deal adequately with the effects of a hurricane in New Orleans.

At the same time this catastrophic event happened in Burma, the Chinese Government, a government with a number of foreign policy difficulties and human rights violations within its own borders, has responded quite well to a similar catastrophe. It has done so by showing an openness not shown by the Burmese authorities. Its acceptance of €1 million in aid from Ireland is a sign of the recognition by the Chinese authorities for the need to accept assistance from whatever source to deal with what is a human catastrophe.

The difficulty is that Burma has been always a closed state, run for the interests of a select few. I recall as a teenager my father bringing a wall chart from the National Geographic magazine showing the peoples of South East Asia, not alone in Burma but in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We have learned since then not only about the systematic political crackdown on the forces of democracy represented by Aung Sang Suu Kyi but also the ethnic violence perpetrated on people like the Karen people in Burma. Yet, in a natural catastrophe like this, it seems to heap insult on a people living a miserable life that we in the developed world have failed to respond adequately.

Some months ago, we discussed in this House the failure to adequately support an internal uprising in Burma largely led by Buddhist monks. Now, a short time later we find ourselves speaking about what is a benighted country in terms of its recent history. That said, however odious the regime that exists there, we must put aside our political differences and try to use every means at our disposal to ensure assistance gets into Burma as quickly as possible. It is more than a little frustrating to hear that 300 people from ASEAN countries are being allowed in by the Burmese Government and that a conference by the United Nations and ASEAN will be held next week in order to decide how best to get aid in to the country.

We must do things differently and better. On every ground, the Burmese regime is failing its people and its country. However, we must put this aside and use whatever mechanisms and resources are available to us as a country, which has some stock in terms of international relations, to assuage the misery inflicted on the Burmese people. It has been admitted already that some 80,000 people are dead, a further 60,000 people are missing and millions are affected by displacement. We need to be practical and thanks to the existence of the Burmese Government, what we are doing is far from adequate.