Army experts to help rebuilding efforts in Asia

An expert Irish defence forces team is to be deployed to the region devastated by the Asian tsunami next week, it was confirmed today.

Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Jim Sreenan said he had decided to send the team to Sri Lanka following consultation with Defence Minister Willie O’Dea.

The four-man team will join up with the United Nations Joint Logistics Co-ordination Centre in the capital Columbo on Monday, he said.

The group consists of two transport and logistics specialists and two structural engineering officers with vast expertise in their respective fields.

The transport and logistics officers will be tasked with the co-ordination and distribution of aid and equipment to the worst affected areas of the country.

The Engineer Officers will be tasked with surveying roads and bridges and general engineering works.

The team will be led by Colonel Dermot Conway, from Dublin, who is the Officer Commanding the Combat Service Support College, Defence Forces Training Centre.

Col Conway has a great deal of overseas experience and was the first commander of the Transport Logistics Company deployed to Somalia in 1993.

Lieutenant Colonel John Egan, from Dublin, has worked in the area of transport and logistical co-ordination for many years.

He has served as the Deputy Head of Logistics with the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara, and also as Transport Officer in Kosovo.

Commandant Damien McEvoy, from Dublin, has served in Lebanon and Croatia as an Engineer Officer. He specialises in the design of bridges and buildings.

Captain John Phelan, a civil engineer from Kilkenny, is based with the 506 Squadron, Air Corps. He served as the Engineer Officer with the Irish Battalion in Liberia.

The decision to send the team was taken after Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern visited the devastated area.