Humanitarian aid needs to get into cyclone-ravaged Burma to help avert a massive disease epidemic, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin said today.
Aid agencies have complained that rescue efforts to help survivors of last weekend's disaster are being hampered by the country's military regime.
As many as 100,000 people have already been killed and hundreds are reported missing.
Mr Martin said today: "We deplore any decision by the military government not to facilitate access to aid.
"We will continue to put pressure on the authorities, through the UN and our partners in the region, to facilitate such access.
"It is a humanitarian disaster of huge proportions," he told RTÉ Radio.
Mr Martin was appointed on Wednesday to the Foreign Affairs portfolio from Enterprise, Trade and Employment in Taoiseach Brian Cowen's Cabinet reshuffle.
The Burma issue is being debated by TDs in the Dail on Thursday and an all-party motion is likely to be passed.
Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins said he has raised the issue in the European Parliament in a bid to put pressure on China.
He added: "There are reports coming in this morning that corpses are rotting on the streets and the disease implications are serious.
Burma Action Ireland hopes the cyclone may provide a means for the international community to gain access to Burma and influence democratic change in the country.
"This is the main hope of the international community, of shifting this appalling military regime," said a spokesperson for the group.
"Burma is the most oppressed, secretive and dangerous society." Burmese state media has said that 23,335 people have died with a further 37,019 are missing following the devastating cyclone which deluged and submerged vast swathes of the Irrawaddy delta.
But aid agencies expect the death toll to rise to in excess of 100,000.
Labour TD Liz McManus said: "I think it is an absolute nightmare what has happened in Burma." She called for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has spend more than a decade under house arrest.
"There is this ongoing oppressive regime which is tightening its noose all the time on the people who are now suffering the most awful disaster."
PA