State spends €11m of tsunami aid
A senior official with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), which is co-ordinating the Government response, said the emergency phase of the operation was over. The remainder of the allocation will be spent on long-term reconstruction and development programmes in the affected countries, he said.
Given the massive scale of destruction, the time scale for this is three to five years. Accordingly, the DFA will take time to evaluate projects and to identify gaps in programmes where Irish personnel can provide expert help. Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern also strongly supports the establishment of a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean, said his spokesman. If the system gets the go-ahead, a portion of Ireland's remaining funding will be earmarked to it, he said.
