McAleese pledges funds and technical support

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese yesterday told Haiti’s head of state that Ireland was praying for his country as the Government prepared to send a team of specialists to the earthquake-hit region.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen pledged additional money and technical support for relief teams in the Caribbean state.

In a message to Haitian president Rene Garcia Preval, President McAleese said the Government would give emergency humanitarian aid through the UN and other agencies.

“The loss of so many lives and the widespread destruction caused by the earthquake has deeply grieved me,” she said. “The sorrow of the people of Haiti has resonated deeply in Ireland and our thoughts and prayers are with you and your people.”

Mr Cowen said: “We will work co-operatively with everybody in the international community to alleviate the extreme hardship.”

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said he feared more than 100,000 people could have died, although figures were sketchy.

President Preval later suggested the death toll was more like 50,000, while a Haitian senator claimed it could be up to 500,000.

All 18 Irish citizens in Haiti are said to be safe and well. Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin has vowed €2 million towards the relief effort.

A team of Irish Aid experts, and specialists from the rapid reaction corps, were being sent out and are expected to arrive in the next few days.

“Irish Aid deployed a technical team to Asia in the wake of the Asian tsunami in 2004 and they proved highly effective in ensuring that our aid was delivered in a targeted manner and did not duplicate the efforts of other donors,” the minister said. “The team who will deploy to Haiti over the coming days will be charged with the same mission and their assessments will feed into Ireland’s ongoing support to the people of Haiti who have suffered such devastating losses.”

The quake hit the Caribbean island state shortly before 5pm local time (9.53pm Irish time) on Tuesday, toppling hundreds of buildings in capital Port-au-Prince, from shacks to a hospital, the United Nations headquarters and the presidential palace.

Meanwhile, the UN has appealed for specialist staff trained in logistics, tele-communications and sanitation.

Following requests from Concern and Goal, Irish Aid will fly out emergency supplies from its stockpiles including plastic sheeting for temporary shelter and jerry-cans to store water for about 3,000 families.

Seismologists said the impact of the quake, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, was all the more destructive because its epicentre was “shallow”, causing greater shaking on the surface of the ground.

It is thought the quake was the worst to strike the country for 120 years.

Its epicentre was within 16km of the centre of densely-populated Port-au-Prince, where around one million people live.

The chief of the UN mission to Haiti, Hedi Annabi, is among the dead.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon described the tremor as “catastrophic” and urged the international community “to come to Haiti’s aid in this hour of need”.

He announced the UN would provide $10 million (€7m) for relief from its emergency fund.