Aid agencies will meet the Taoiseach and Minister for Foreign Affairs today to co-ordinate their activities and decide how best to spend the €10 million which the Government has donated to help the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster.
Relatives of missing Irish people travelled to Thailand yesterday and faced the grim task of viewing bodies in the hope of finding their loved ones.
Bodies from Phi-Phi island, which was almost destroyed, are being brought to the Thai mainland, where Ireland's ambassador to Thailand, Mr Dan Mulhall, hopes relatives will be able to identify family members.
Mr Mulhall, who is leading efforts to track down missing Irish people, accompanied relatives to Krabi province in southern Thailand where the bodies are being stored in temporary mortuaries.
"We're in Krabi where the bodies are coming in from Phi-Phi and I'm helping the relatives in their search to identify their loved ones. The families are being looked after well and we're hopeful we'll have some progress to report," Mr Mulhall told The Irish Times.
"We've a number of leads but nothing has been clarified as yet. We haven't found any Irish bodies yet," he said.
With the death toll in the disaster reaching 145,000, including more than 9,000 foreigners, most of them Europeans, affected governments and rescue workers were starting to accept yesterday that many of the missing may never be found.
The four missing Irish are Ms Eilís Finnegan from Ballyfermot in Dublin, Ms Lucy Coyle from Killiney in Dublin, Mr Conor Keightley from Co Tyrone and Mr Michael Murphy from Co Wexford.
Ms Coyle (29) went to Thailand with her boyfriend, Mr Sean Sweetman. They were staying at the Phi-Phi Princess resort. Dublin businessman Mr Barry Murphy is searching for his girlfriend Ms Eilís Finnegan from Ballyfermot. Her AIB banklink card was among various identity documents found on Phi-Phi and which Thai police put on display yesterday.
At the Pearl Hotel in Phuket, where the Irish Embassy has set up a help desk, relatives returned yesterday from trying to track down their loved ones. They were exhausted and distraught.
The missing Irish will be discussed by the Cabinet when Ministers hold their first meeting of the new year tomorrow. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has called for three minutes' silence at 11 a.m. and for all public buildings to fly the national flag at half mast.
Aid agencies meeting Mr Ahern, and the Foreign Minister, Mr Dermot Ahern, today want the United Nations to have a central, co-ordinating role.
Mr Tom Arnold, chief executive of Concern, said the aid effort should be co-ordinated, both at Irish and at international level.
He said the United Nations had a crucial role to play in ensuring that a co-ordinated approach was taken. "I'm not confident that there has been sufficient urgency to make it happen," Mr Arnold said.
Mr John O'Shea of Goal wants the Army deployed. Aid agencies were unable to use cranes or cross land where bridges had collapsed but the Army were, he said.
However, the Minister for Defence, Mr O'Dea, said last night that while the Government would be "very disposed to responding positively to any request for assistance" any decision would depend on a United Nations mandate, together with Government and Dáil approval - the so-called triple lock.
Last night, the Canadian government decided to send its military rapid response team to Sri Lanka. The 200-member Disaster Assistance Response Team will be sent to the Ampara district in the south-east of Sri Lanka, where 100,000 people are homeless, to provide water and medical care.
In the US President Bush launched an unprecedented appeal for people to send money to relief agencies, a plea fronted by two former presidents, his father Mr George Bush snr and Mr Bill Clinton.
The four Catholic archbishops have asked people to observe Friday as a "day of solidarity" for victims of the disaster. Solidarity could take the form of fasting, reflection and generosity, said Dr Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.