Global disaster response plan criticised

GOVERNMENT moves to set-up a 50-strong expert volunteer team for rapid deployment in global disaster areas drew criticism from relief agencies last night.

GOAL director John O’Shea expressed concern the initiative could hoover up the best talent available and leave his and other organisations worse off.

Mr O’Shea was responding to Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern’s appeal for volunteers to come forward to form a Rapid Response Corps ready to go into natural emergency areas at short notice.

Adverts will appear in the national press from today calling for engineering, communications, IT and other experts to sign up for three-month-long stints helping victims of disasters like the tsunami and Pakistani earthquake.

The RRC will be deployed at short notice to help United Nation’s humanitarian efforts on the ground.

However, Mr O’Shea said organisations like GOAL had not been consulted properly in setting-up the RRC.

“Concern and GOAL have been doing this for 35 years, there are only a few people in the country that can go and do this phenomenally difficult work, now we are in competition.

“We will end up trying to fight fires in the third world without the expertise we need,” he said.

Mr Ahern insisted the experts gathered by the RRC would be available to help agencies such as GOAL and said a more cohesive Government approach to global disasters was needed.

The RRC should be in action early next year and cost €1 million to set-up.