Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and Seanad Éireann for affording the time to have a discussion on this appalling catastrophe which has befallen the country and people of Haiti. I also thank Senators for their good wishes and congratulations on the Irish response.

I begin by echoing the sentiments expressed by all Senators and reiterating the Government's condolences to the people of Haiti and, in particular, those many thousands who lost loved ones in their families, such as parents and children, in the earthquake on 12 January. Our thoughts also go out to the family of Irishman Andrew Grene, to the families of all those UN personnel who lost their lives and the family of the Concern employee killed in the disaster. I recognise the presence for much of this debate of the ambassador from Cuba. What Haiti needs just as much as financial and humanitarian aid for many years to come is the solidarity of the global community. It will also need the help of close neighbours, including Cuba.

The tragic events in Haiti have touched people all over the world. We all empathise with the families who have been torn apart, the children who have lost parents and with the many thousands who will never know for certain the fate of friends and family. News footage of bodies scattered across the streets of Port-au-Prince and Haiti's other cities is fresh in the mind, as are the pleas of survivors for help from the international community.

The precise death toll may never be fully known but it is clear that this has been one of the worst natural disasters to affect any country in over a century. It is important to emphasise at the outset that few countries could be worse equipped to deal with a disaster than Haiti. Today, just over two weeks on, the humanitarian emergency continues. Aid workers continue to struggle to provide all of those who require assistance with emergency medical care, shelter, food and water.

The scale of this disaster, concentrated in such a small geographical area, is like nothing the modern world has ever seen. The death toll continues to rise and it is quite possible it could exceed that of the 2004 tsunami which devastated countries across Asia and the Pacific. As we know, this devastation is concentrated in an area much smaller than that affected by the tsunami. No single community has ever had to bear such casualties from a natural disaster and it is important to emphasise that few countries in the world were less equipped to cope with this disaster than Haiti.

Ireland, along with the rest of the European Union, the United Nations and the international community, is doing everything possible to provide assistance and ensure it reaches those who need it most as quickly as possible. Our thoughts and our planning have moved from search and rescue and from the immediate relief effort to meeting the ongoing needs of the earthquake survivors and to the reconstruction of Haiti. This will take many years.

The unanimous view of the Haitian Government, the United Nations, the European Commission and our own expert team, which returned from Haiti yesterday, is that shelter, water and sanitation will be the number one priorities in the coming weeks. Hundreds of thousands are sleeping in the open in Haiti. In Port-au-Prince they are camping in parks and other open areas surrounded by the ruins of their capital city. Many thousands of others have moved into the countryside and the hills surrounding Port-au-Prince.

Since the earthquake struck the weather has remained dry and warm. However, in a matter of weeks the rainy season will begin and Haiti will face a second humanitarian crisis if emergency shelter is not provided to hundreds of thousands of people. The Government is conscious of this danger and on Monday I authorised a second Irish airlift of emergency supplies to Haiti. This consists of tents and materials for use in building temporary shelters, as well as water containers and sanitation equipment. This new consignment is in addition to the 84 tonnes which the Government sent to Haiti last week and which was distributed by Concern and GOAL. Between these two consignments the Irish taxpayer is providing a roof and basic infrastructure for more than 12,000 Haitian families.

At a global level, an international conference will be held in March in New York to harness the outpouring of support for Haiti and to ensure its recovery is built on solid foundations. The European Commission has already indicated it will contribute over €300 million to the long-term reconstruction of Haiti. Ireland will participate in that international conference and I assure the House of the Government's commitment to stand with the Haitian people in the long term as they rebuild their shattered lives and country.

I acknowledge the contribution of Senator Cummins in this respect and I have made this contribution to the European Council of both foreign and development ministers in the past seven days. An exact expression of the aid is not what is needed at the moment. It is a very solid and clear commitment that whatever it takes to rebuild the country on solid foundations will be done by the international community. Ireland will not be found wanting in that respect.

The Government commitment reflects the desire of the Irish public to contribute to the relief of Haiti. This is clearly illustrated by the extraordinary level of generosity towards appeals from NGOs and UN agencies over the past few days. Large sums have been donated at a time when many people are feeling the effects of the recession, have lost their jobs or have seen their salaries reduced. This level of generosity towards and solidarity with the people of Haiti is something of which all of us in Ireland can be proud. My office has received many calls from members of the public asking how they can help. Every effort will be made to harness the goodwill of the Irish people and the expertise consistent with best practice and with a co-ordinated response, to which Senator Mooney and others referred. I commend every member of the public who has contributed. Their support will help relieve the suffering of thousands of Haitians.

I pay particular tribute to the many Irish people working in Port-au-Prince and elsewhere in Haiti to distribute aid, provide medical attention and, wherever possible, to save lives. Many Irish people are daily risking their personal safety to bring relief to the Haitian people. All of those working with the UN, NGOs or as part of private initiatives deserve our recognition and thanks.

The Irish response, at Government and non-governmental level, has been swift and decisive. Within hours of the earthquake, Irish Aid was in contact with NGOs such as Concern and GOAL to make emergency funding available to these organisations. Our mission in Geneva and our emergency and recovery unit were in communication with the UN from early morning on 12 January to assess the scale of the disaster, the likely needs and the contribution Ireland could make. By lunchtime, we had pledged €2 million to support the initial emergency relief effort, €1 million of which was allocated to a UN emergency appeal for Haiti. Of this money, €300,000 each was immediately paid out to the World Food Programme and the Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which is co-ordinating the international relief effort. A further €250,000 was paid out to the Red Cross and the remainder of this funding is being channelled through NGOs such as Concern and GOAL.

In addition, two members of the Irish Aid rapid response corps have deployed to Haiti. The deployment of these individuals can only be made at the request of the UN, consistent with the co-ordinator's response and on which many Members touched. The two members are an electrical engineer and an IT expert who have been assigned to the World Food Programme. Other rapid response corps members with specialised skills in engineering, logistics and water and sanitation are on stand-by and we expect them to be called upon in the coming days and weeks. Corps volunteers provide highly specialised skills to humanitarian agencies operating in crisis situations and can be deployed within days or even hours of a disaster. Another corps member - a Defence Forces engineer - travelled to Haiti with the Irish Aid technical mission, which I dispatched last week to assess how Ireland can best contribute to the international relief effort.

I will shortly meet the team to hear their recommendations on how we should direct our funding. These will be central to our approach to the ongoing humanitarian situation in Haiti, as well as to our pledge at the international conference on Haiti next March in New York. The total value of the Government response, both financially and in kind, is well in excess of €3 million. This figure will undoubtedly increase further as the full picture of Haiti's needs becomes clearer in the weeks leading up to the international conference. This is in addition to our ongoing contributions to the UN's central emergency response fund, which was established, with our assistance, following the 2004 tsunami to provide the UN with a ready pool of emergency funding for crises such as that in Haiti. The lessons of the tsunami have been learned and are being put into effect. Within days of the earthquake, the UN drew down US$25 million to fund the international relief operation and the Irish Aid team has praised its quick impact in the disaster zone.

Ireland was one of the countries which pressed for the establishment of the fund. We have contributed €73 million since it was set up in 2006, including €20 million last year. I expect that much of that funding is currently being drawn down to manage the immediate emergency and relief effort. We can be proud that our funds are helping to save thousands of lives in Haiti, as they have in other disaster areas across the globe.

The Government and my Department drew many lessons from the 2004 tsunami. In the aftermath of that enormous tragedy, we reflected on how we could respond more quickly and more effectively to future disasters. We identified those parts of our own system which could be improved, and put in place the structures which have allowed us to react quickly to the Haiti disaster.

We established the rapid response corps to meet the need for highly specialised skills in a major emergency and to harness the enormous talent and volunteer spirit which exists in Irish society. We developed emergency stockpiles of humanitarian materials in depots around the globe, precisely in order that we could react as we have done. Today in Haiti, thousands of people are receiving lifesaving supplies as a result of this initiative driven by the Irish Government and distributed by Irish aid agencies.

The Irish response is part of a combined EU relief effort in Haiti totalling €122 million and agreed at an emergency meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, which I attended in Brussels last week. In addition to this financial support, the EU provided 400 rescue workers from a variety of EU countries, as well as field hospitals, medical posts and nearly 300 medical personnel. It was also agreed this week that the EU would provide 300 police officers to reinforce the UN presence in Haiti and provide the stability necessary for the reconstruction effort. Although the debt cancellation to which some Members referred is not strictly within my remit, I will convey the strong views of the House to the Minister for Finance on the issue.

While there has been some criticism of the speed of the international response, the difficulties in getting supplies and workers into Haiti are substantial and were exacerbated by the almost total destruction of Haiti's infrastructure. In a disaster of this severity, humanitarian aid, no matter how swift, can never be quick enough to help the suffering. Even before the earthquake, Haiti had only the most basic transport and communication network. The little that existed was severely damaged, meaning that the international relief effort had to begin almost from scratch. Every government ministry was destroyed. This country was almost unique in its inability to deal with a crisis of this scale and magnitude.

The Irish Aid team, which observed the relief effort at first hand, has praised the efforts of the United Nations to co-ordinate the hundreds of agencies operating in Haiti. However, it is an unfortunate fact that the scale of the disaster, combined with the weakness of Haiti's infrastructure and the sheer number of groups participating in the operation, overwhelmed the UN's co-ordination capacity in the initial aftermath. Many hundreds of UN workers who were in Haiti at the time were killed. The UN co-ordination in Haiti was decapitated almost instantaneously and this must be taken into account.

Co-ordination is critical in the global and international response to a disaster of this magnitude. Senators Ormonde, Norris and Mooney made informed comments on this aspect. Something of the scale and magnitude of this disaster, the like of which has not been seen for over a century, needs a global, co-ordinated response. It is something we addressed at length at the EU co-ordination meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council and the meeting of development Ministers last week. I wish I had had the benefit of Senator Mooney's helpful report to inform my contribution at that meeting. I have had the opportunity to read the report since and I commend Senator Mooney on its incisive and instructive comments.

I wish to draw three real distinctions with regard to co-ordination of the global response in this respect. It depends on number of factors and is predicated on three phases of the disaster. First, there is the initial, immediate response to the chaos caused in Port-au-Prince. Second, there is the short-term humanitarian need once the recovery effort is completed. We are now at that stage. There is also the medium-term response over the next few months but there is also a long-term response. Each one of these responses requires co-ordination of different types and depends on a number of factors. Most important is the proximity of a major power such as the United States, which had the military and logistical capability, proximity to the disaster zone and the ability to deploy thousands of people in an organised way in a very short period.

I echo the comments made by a number of Senators that the US Government, President Obama and the US military made a significant contribution towards the immediate emergency relief effort. It is fair and proper that this is acknowledged. That does not mean that a military force should co-ordinate the humanitarian effort in the short term following the initial chaos. That is not best practice. It should be co-ordinated by a global organisation such as the United Nations. This has the legitimacy of the international community. This is something we will return to repeatedly. The response must be highly co-ordinated and we must learn from the lessons of the tsunami. Sometimes hundreds and thousands of aid agencies arriving in a disaster zone in a short period can create more problems than it solves. That is why co-ordination is very important.

When the cameras leave Port-au-Prince and the journalists dwindle to a small number, the real relief effort will come into place. That is when the work that will benefit millions of people in Haiti will begin and this must stand the test of time. Global organisations such as the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, proven actors in the development and reconstruction business, need to step up to the mark because that is when the real work will be done. This must be done in a co-ordinated way. This should be done through one unified delivery mechanism, almost separate from the existing mechanisms. I have not formed definite opinions in this respect, nor has the Government, but it might be worthy of debate in this House and in the Lower House in time to come. Co-ordination of the relief effort has improved from the tsunami, as witnessed by the more efficient distribution of aid in recent days. However, many agencies in Haiti are operating independently of the UN co-ordination structures. It is clear there will be much to learn from the way the international community reacted to this crisis, how its response was organised and how its co-ordinating structures can be improved.

The Haiti earthquake has shocked the world by its scale and intensity. Television cameras could barely convey the sheer magnitude of the catastrophe. When the cameras have gone, the suffering will continue for many years. During this period the Irish people can be certain that Irish Aid, the people's aid organisation, will stand in solidarity with the Haitian people. Haiti cannot manage this enormous task by itself. It will require financial support, programme support, specialised skills and know-how. For Ireland and the rest of the international community, the challenge will be to remain with Haiti as it makes the slow transition from relief to reconstruction and development. As its resilient people pick up the pieces of their shattered lives and start to build for the future, I assure the House that Ireland will be equal to the challenge.