Government offers support to Haiti

The Government today offered emergency aid and put teams of relief workers on standby to travel to earthquake-hit Haiti.

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin said €20m of Irish aid money was donated last year to the United Nations’ disaster response and more would be provided if needed.

Up to 130 members of the country’s specialist rapid response corps were on hand to fly out to the Caribbean if needed, he said.

Meanwhile, the Digicel communications group, owned by Irish media mogul Denis O’Brien which has a large presence in the region, offered €3.5m in emergency funding.

Mr Martin said: “Reports reaching us from Haiti indicate the horrific extent of the destruction caused by this earthquake.

“Our immediate thoughts are with the people of Haiti and all those who have lost family and friends in this terrible tragedy.”

The powerful tremor, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck at 4.53pm yesterday (9.53pm Irish time) and is said to be the most powerful to hit the country in more than 100 years.

Aid agency Goal, which operates in Honduras, will send a team of workers to the island and has set aside €250,000.

Former All-Ireland Offaly hurler Darren Hanniffy, who will lead the operation, said: “From our contacts on the ground in Port-au-Prince we have established that this is a horrific catastrophe which will acquire a major international effort.

“Goal will do all it can to ease the suffering of these desperately poor people.”

Colm Delves, Digicel group chief executive, said the company was deeply upset and wanted to support relief efforts.

“We hope that governments around the world will also support the people of Haiti and immediately provide much needed aid to assist with the huge recovery efforts that are now needed,” Mr Delves said.

“The people of Haiti welcomed us and made us their own when we launched there in 2007 and we are determined to be there for them in their time of need.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and we would like to assure them that Digicel stands ready to assist in whatever way we can at this difficult time.”

A teleconference of European Union officials was also planned to co-ordinate member states’ response to the disaster.

Aid agency Concern, which has 100 mostly local staff in Haiti, also offered €250,000 emergency funding and launched a (€5m) appeal.

Concern chief executive Tom Arnold urged the public to support the fundraising drive.

“This is a terrible catastrophe affecting some of the most vulnerable people in the world who are living in dire poverty,” Mr Arnold said.

All Concern staff were reportedly safe.

The aid agency’s workers on the ground said it had been difficult to assess the extent of the devastation overnight but food, water, shelter and medicine were priorities.

Concern staff from New York and Dublin will assess the earthquake’s impact in Port-au-Prince, Saut d’Eau and the island of La Gonave over the next 24 hours.

The Irish Red Cross and Christian Aid Ireland have also launched appeals.