Because time is short I will move along. It would be a very hard-hearted person who has not been moved by recent reports which have conveyed such a vivid picture of the appalling level of suffering now being endured as a result of famine in Ethiopia. We have seen the film of children in the final stages of starvation with their swollen stomachs and faces like those of old men, and men and women stunned and defeated, drifting listlessly, broken by the extent of their want. It is hard for us to comprehend the extent of the problem now being faced in Ethiopia, particularly in the northern provinces of Tigre and Wollo. According to the Ethiopian Government and international relief agencies, up to two million people have had to leave their homes as a result of the famine, thousands are dying each day and as many as five million people face the prospect of starvation. That is more than the entire population on this island.
Deputy Wilson speaking in a debate today said that nature had been very good to Ireland, and that is so. It must be admitted that nature has been very bad to Ethiopia and has not been good to it in any recent year. There was a dreadful famine there in 1972 and again in 1974. Even at the best of times the average Ethiopian has an annual income of less than £50 and a life expectancy of less than 39 years. Poverty and hunger, I suppose, could be said accurately to be a way of death in Ethiopia, but the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that it demands immediate action by those countries, including Ireland, which, whatever their problems, are more fortunate than so many Third World countries.
There are a number of specific things I should like to ask the Government to do and the country to support. The first request I should like to make is that the Government immediately, from our own resources under our own bilateral aid programme, make a substantial amount of money available for relief. Because of the internal political problems within Ethiopia it is preferable that this money should be allocated through Irish non-governmental organisations, such as Trocaire, who are working in those parts of Ethiopia where its own government cannot reach. Secondly, I should like to ask the Government, in their capacity as President of the EC Council of Ministers, to ensure that the Community reacts immediately to this problem with a substantial donation of cash and food, particularly cereals. The Government should attempt to have EC bureaucracy by-passed because, as I understand it, it can take four or five months between the receipt of a an appeal to the EC and the delivery of food.
My third point is that the Government should ensure that there is an intensified effort under the European Development Fund to provide the backup services in terms of agricultural development, irrigation, health and so on so that the overall problems of hunger can be tackled. It is a necessity to ensure that aid is not in any way withheld for political reasons. The Government should urge all countries with major air fleets to respond to the appeal by the Ethopian Government for air transport. I should like to ask the Minister to request Aer Lingus, who often have spare capacity in winter months, to make it available to the Ethiopian relief effort.