State spends €11m of tsunami aid

THE Government has so far spent €11 million of the €20 million it pledged in aid to the countries devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami on St Stephen's Day.

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.

The country and regional breakdown for the funding shows that €4.1 million in funding went to projects spanning the whole South-East Asia region. In separate allocations of aid to individual countries, Sri Lanka was the biggest beneficiary (€2.5 million) with India getting €1.7 million and Indonesia €994,000. The Government also provided €500,000 for recovery operations in Burma through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). All the major Irish NGOs received government funding - that was in addition to the €50 million in public donations received by Irish charities and agencies. The biggest single recipient of government funding is the World Food Programme. It has received €2 million to date.

"The reconstruction programme could take between five and 10 years," said the official.

The Government envoy, former Fianna Fáil TD Chris Flood, is finishing his second visit to the affected countries and has been liaising with a government-appointed consultant in redevelopment, who has also travelled extensively in recent weeks.

In addition to funding, the Government also hopes to provide expert help in the areas of logistics, transport and water-purification projects. "It's a complex issue. There are a large number of countries affected and a huge international effort in place. We intend to take our time in planning the further disbursements," said the official.