IRELAND may “adopt and rebuild” a number of villages in Thailand as a memorial to the Irish people who perished in the tsunami.

Chris Flood, the official charged with dispensing Irish aid in the affected areas, is urging the government to leave an “Irish footprint” in Thailand in honour of those who died. There were about 850 Irish in the southern Asian countries when the tidal wave struck last St Stephen’s Day. Four of these, all of whom were in Thailand at the time, were killed.

Flood said he would recommend that at least three villages in the country be regenerated using Irish funds, with €100,000 pledged to each.

“I want us to target villages in outlying areas far removed from the centre of the disaster,” he said. “Some of these have been forgotten and it would be good to adopt them. We should fund particular projects to help them recover from the devastation they have experienced and €100,000 will go a long way to doing that. We need to ensure basic facilities are put in place, improve infrastructure and do whatever is needed to regenerate income.

“The plan would be to find a number in a particular region and make these Irish villages, ones that could be identified as being assisted by the Irish government. They would then be a memorial to the Irish who were lost in the region,” he said.

Flood, a former minister for state and now chairman of the advisory board of Development Cooperation Ireland, is also to recommend that a rapid response unit be established in the Irish army that would be available at short notice to move into countries when natural disasters occur.

“This will be one of my most important recommendations. We had Irish army personnel in Sri Lanka and I met them there when I visited. The work they were doing was highly professional, but they made the point that there was a need for a faster, more organised and targeted approach.

“We have troops trained in peacekeeping and we should look at doing the same in relation to disaster management if it’s our intention to help in future cases. The first hours and days are vital and we need a unit that can be mobilised and tackle things like emergency bridge-building, road and rail repairs and communications,” he said.

Flood has visited Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand and has handed over his first report to the government with a second one due this week.

He said the early response to the tsunami was hampered by confusion created by too many charities from all over the world moving into the region and a lack of co-operation between them. As a result, he is to ask the Irish government to campaign internationally for a new system to be devised whereby the world’s top non-governmental agencies would work more closely when responding to such a disaster.

“This was something that was very obvious once you were on the ground. Different agencies were in the region looking for projects to get involved in. They were anxious to utilise their resources and contributions, but there was a lack of co-ordination between them and this caused confusion. In Indonesia, there were something like 350 agencies and from a logistics point of view this was causing its own problem,” he said.

He gave an example of houses being built by agencies in Indonesia.

“These houses were being built too close to the sea. The government wanted them to be back from the shore because of what had happened. The people wanted them to be close because they would have liked to hold onto the patches of land they had before the tsunami. They then changed their minds when there was a scare relating to the possibility of a second tsunami and the entire issue caused huge confusion that could have been avoided if things had been better organised,” he said.

“I am going to recommend that we spearhead a campaign at UN level to address this and to try to facilitate a new system that would oblige NGOs to work more closely and in conjunction with each other in future. There has to be an overall plan in these situations that everyone then plays a part in,” he said.

Flood is planning to identify the villages to be regenerated on his next visit to Thailand in July. The issue is sensitive as the Thai government has said that it does not want or need outside help. Flood, however, said aid is accepted when it’s directed regionally through non-government agencies.

The four Irish people killed in the tsunami have now been identified. The remains of Michael Murphy, a 23-year-old student from Wexford and the last victim to be found were identified last month. He had been holidaying in Khao Lak when the tsunami struck. Lucy Coyle, 28, from Dublin, was also found in early April. She was enjoying a holiday with her British boyfriend Sean Sweetman on the Thai island of Phi Phi when the two were killed.

Eilis Finnegan, a 27-year-old air hostess from Ballyfermot and Conor Keightly, 31, from Co Tyrone, were identified in the weeks following the disaster. Both had been staying separately on Phi Phi. In addition to the €20m pledged by the Irish government, aid agencies have received contributions of more than €75m from Irish people.

Flood said he was confident that the €11.3m already committed by the Irish government was being well spent.

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