Of the 27 EU countries, only 21 deployed small medical teams and search and rescue teams to Türkiye in the aftermath of the recent earthquake. Ireland, unfortunately, sent nobody at all. I accept the fact we provided approximately €10 million, which was a good thing, but money is of little use to families who are caught beneath the rubble. It is a pity. We have the Civil Defence and the Reserve Defence Force. We have the rapid response corps in the Department of Foreign Affairs. The ultimate expression of solidarity is to put people and boots on the ground. Would the Taoiseach agree that this is an area for improvement? Will he agree to look at this matter over the coming weeks? We could place teams on standby to deploy to the next natural disaster abroad when it comes.

I thank the Deputy. I agree this is a matter at which we need to look. I discussed the matter with the Tánaiste, Deputy Martin, because as Minister for Defence he is responsible for emergency response. I may be wrong, but it would appear that one of the reasons we did not send a team abroad is because we are not set up in that way in Ireland. For example, when the terrible events happened at Creeslough, we were largely dependent on people coming from Northern Ireland to do search and rescue for us. We are obviously not set up for earthquakes but we need to be set up for things such as gas explosions and, God forbid, bombs. It seems we are not. It is not just a case of not having a crew to send abroad. We do not really have the right set-up should an event like that happen here. That is a matter we will look into.