Written answers

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Infectious Diseases Epidemic

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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561. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which aid, medical supplies and personnel continue to be made available to those countries most affected by Ebola, with particular reference to the necessity to take adequate steps to minimise the possibility of recurrences; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15691/15]

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Through the work on the ground of our Embassy in Sierra Leone and our significant financial support, and the work of a range of Irish NGOs, Ireland has played a leading role in the international response to the Ebola crisis. These efforts are finally showing progress as transmission rates start to decline. The EU and its Member States have so far committed over €1.2 billion to the Ebola response. In 2014, Ireland provided over €18 million, directly and through NGOs, to the most affected countries. This included some €10 million through our annual development programmes in our partner countries - Sierra Leone and Liberia – which have a particular focus on strengthening the national health systems. We provided over €5.6 million specifically for Ebola treatment facilities and for work on contact-tracing, community mobilisation and child nutrition programmes, among other activities.

The very serious wider implications of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa were the subject of a high-level international conference on Ebola in Brussels on 3 March which I attended. A secondary crisis is emerging due to the impact on food security, nutrition, employment and economic growth as normal agricultural and market activities have been disrupted. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will need ongoing support and assistance from the international community in order to rebuild their economies and their health systems. This will be a strong focus of our bilateral programmes in Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2015 and beyond.

The unprecedented outbreak of Ebola in West Africa last year exposed a lack of preparedness on the part of the countries directly affected, and the international community, to cope with an epidemic of this magnitude and its far-reaching consequences. Among the initiatives underway to avoid a recurrence are the resolution agreed at a special session of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board in January, which formally initiated an urgent lessons learned process aimed at being able to respond with greater speed and effectiveness in future to health crises such as an Ebola outbreak.

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