John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 144: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the progress with regard to the establishment of a voluntary humanitarian corps; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19555/06]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Rapid Response Initiative is designed to strengthen Ireland's operational response to humanitarian crises. In the context of the overwhelming public response to the Tsunami of December 2004, I believe that Ireland can and should do more to help in responding operationally to sudden-onset emergencies.

The Rapid Response Initiative will have three main components: the pre-positioning and transportation of humanitarian supplies to disaster areas; the availability of a roster of highly skilled and experienced individuals for deployment at short notice; and enhancing our support for international humanitarian response agencies and mechanisms.

With particular reference to the rapid response register, discussions in this regard have taken place over the last number of weeks with a number of United Nations agencies, including United Nations Volunteers (UNV), the World Food Programme, the UN Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

These organisations all use, to varying degrees, stand-by arrangements within their own and other organisations to enable them to take on extra staff capacity in the event of a sudden on-set humanitarian emergency. Ireland will seek to complement these arrangements with the provision of experts from our own roster. I am conscious that if the register is to be successful in the longer term, it will need to be carefully and professionally managed.

Our Rapid Response Register will comprise a range of experts of a profile typically required to meet surge requirements such as experts on logistics and transport, ICT, refugee camp management and engineering. They will have the flexibility to deploy quickly and the ability to work in the complex and demanding environment of humanitarian crises with UN agencies and NGOs. The profile of such experts is being developed on the basis of consultation with our key partner agencies and NGOs. Proposals on the recommended course of action with regard to the rapid response register will be brought forward shortly.

As part of the initiative, my Department is also, obviously, in close contact with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working in emergencies. I believe there is an important opportunity for this Rapid Response Initiative to enable an ever stronger collaboration between Government and NGOs in providing a distinctly Irish response to emergencies that includes the full range of assistance required — funding, experts and humanitarian supplies.