In Port-au-Prince, hundreds of thousands of people are living in spontaneous settlements around the city, without access to clean water or proper sanitation.

When the rainy season starts in late April or early May, and brings the added problem of disease to this mass of tented villages, NGOs will of course do what they can. But in reality, our efforts will amount to no more than the application of a sticking plaster to a gaping wound.

We simply do not have the resources to tackle what needs done, which is the complete re-construction of the country. Only a partnership of national governments and international institutions are capable of doing that. If the developed world refuses to take on the job of completely rebuilding Haiti, in a very short while it will become a "tented" country.

I believe that Ireland, with our history of selfless humanitarian commitment, is better placed than most to lobby on behalf of Haiti where it matters, within the EU and the UN.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and foreign minister Micheal Martin must spearhead a campaign to ensure that the developed world does not abdicate its responsibilities to Haiti. And they must be careful that promises do not turn out to be just empty rhetoric. Our ministers should insist at the EU and the UN that vital component parts of Haiti's re-construction are allocated as specific tasks to individual nations. And that these nations give firm undertakings they will quickly embark upon and complete the tasks allotted to them.

For example, Germany might be charged with completing a wide-scale house-building programme; Britain with the reconstruction of roads; France with restoring vital utilities such as water and sanitation; the US with replacing public service buildings such as hospitals and health centres, and so on.

Haiti needs the international community, through the auspices of the UN and the EU, to take responsibility for its complete re-construction. Ireland should lead the charge in making that happen.

The alternative is to stand idly by, while Haiti does indeed become a tented country.

John O'Shea,

GOAL, PO BOX 19,

Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin