Over the past four months, north eastern Turkey has been devastated by two major earthquakes. The severity of these quakes has left more than 40,000 people dead, scores have been injured and many thousands are now homeless, trying to fight off the extreme winter temperatures under plastic sheeting.
In the face of all this devastation, the only offering from the Irish Government to date was £200,000 – a pitiful amount of money that would only purchase a few ministerial cars or go half way towards covering the projected telephone and postal bills of the Taoiseach for the coming year.
This morning, the Taoiseach went on the national airwaves pledging to the Irish people that he would make contact with the Turkish Prime Minister in an attempt to secure transmission rights to broadcast tonight's soccer encounter. I have no doubt that many Irish people would view the Taoiseach's phone call as a good move. However, I am sure the Turkish Prime Minister has more important issues on his mind than football. This week, hundreds of families are burying their dead following Friday's shocking earthquake. Many more families are wondering if they will ever retrieve the bodies of their relatives from the rubble.
During this time of tremendous grief for the Turkish people, the best phone call which the Taoiseach could have made to their Prime Minister would be one which pledged a substantial donation to their on-going relief programme for victims of the recent earthquakes. Such a phone call may not secure front page headlines for the Taoiseach in Irish newspapers, but it would go a long way in helping the displaced people to rebuild some kind of a life for themselves.
The search for survivors of Friday's earthquake is winding up. Anyone trapped under rubble would be dead by now so the rescue teams from Britain, Slovenia and Italy have decided to begin their journey home, but this does not mean that the work has been done. It will take many years before the families who have been displaced are housed again. In the interim, their basic needs of clothing, temporary accommodation and food must to be provided for.
Two weeks ago the Government was gung-ho about the impact which Ireland's troops could make on the international stage if they were part of Partnership for Peace. Turkey needs help now. The RAF and other EU army personnel are on the ground in north-east Turkey. Does the Government have any plans to deploy Army personnel for the purpose of the relief operation?
The £200,000 contribution which the Irish Government made to the Red Cross relief fund for the Turkish earthquake in August is grossly inadequate. In fact, it belittled the extent of the disaster which has taken place in that country.
We have an obligation to increase the ODA contribution. Yet again, in the pre-budget estimates for this year the allocation for ODA barely hovers above 0.3%. In the last year, despite our growing wealth, Ireland still drew down the high proportion of EU receipts. As a nation, we must learn to give as well as take. An announcement of additional aid to help with the Turkish relief project would be a start.
Since the weekend, most mentions of Turkey in the national media have concentrated on the match, the Turkish baths which Irish fans are enjoying and the row over the televising of the match. It is time that the plight of the devastated people of Turkey had their story told lest they be forgotten and, indeed, this Administration could conveniently forget about them too.