David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Special Representative to the House to discuss this important issue. We are fortunate in this country that we have not suffered any major natural disaster for a long number of years, although we sometimes take this for granted. When one looks at some of the disasters in Asia, such as that in Japan, in Haiti and most recently in Oklahoma, we find ourselves very fortunate, but many citizens across the globe are not so fortunate. We need to have strategies and policies that can enable us to beat nature and at least try to mitigate the worst excesses of nature when it strikes, which it unfortunately does.

We have seen huge advances in recent years in research and in the development of new technologies with regard to early warning systems. The Leader of the House, Senator Cummins, and I were in Waterford last Friday at a research and development agency, TSSG, at the ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre, which is a co-location of research and development companies and agencies with private companies. Two of the companies located there are involved in developing new technologies, one of which is a virtual world which would link people who have real expertise in the geography of an area with, for example, emergency services. Again, this is using technology in a very creative but powerful way. If a natural disaster does happen, people who know exactly where a particular building is, what people might be in the building and the layout and design of the building, can link in very quickly with the emergency services. This technology can be used to save lives and help people. Similarly, a technology known as Water World has been developed jointly with Facebook with the aim of helping people who suffer from a lack of proper water provision. It is a software technology that allows people to pay, say, 50 cent a week to be linked directly into a network of people who are supporting a person on the ground in a country where there is a water shortage, providing relief and providing water. I was struck - and I know the Leader of the House was also - by the huge level of research and development in this area which is done in this country. I was blown away by the potential for that technology. On a related question, what relationship does Ms Wahlström have with research and development agencies and what work is being done to encourage more of such innovation in this area, which is important?

While some disasters are natural disasters, some are not natural. Global warming has obviously played a part also, and I would be interested to hear Ms Wahlström's view on this issue.