Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I wish the ambassador and his team a good evening and thank him for coming before the committee. It is very useful to have an in-person meeting because we can both listen to the ambassador's words but also read his body language, which is perhaps more revealing and more insightful.

I have four questions. The first one is on Ukraine and the remaining three are on Ireland. Ukraine received its independence in the 1990s and agreed to hand over all its nuclear warheads to Russia in return for security guarantees. Will the ambassador briefly outline to the committee what guarantees were give to Ukraine in return for the nuclear warheads? Ukraine honoured its part of the agreement by handing over the nuclear weapons. What is the ambassador's assessment of whether Russia has honoured its side of the agreement?

On the embassy in Dublin, I think it was four years ago that the embassy applied for planning permission to increase the size of its building by approximately five times. The application was eventually declined. My question has two parts. Had the application been approved, would that have made the Russian Embassy in Dublin the largest Russian embassy in the European Union? Second, does the Russian Embassy have any further plans to submit planning applications to increase the size of the building?

A number of years ago after the Salisbury poisoning attack, Ireland expelled one member of staff of the Russian Embassy. Has the number of personnel working at the embassy increased or reduced since that date? I ask that the ambassador give us an approximate figure for how many personnel are working at the embassy and whether the SVR or GRU have personnel based there.

My final question is more straightforward. We note the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, has not received any further notification of a live-fire exercise somewhere in the Atlantic. Are we to take it Russia does not intend to run a live-fire component as any part of an exercise in the next week or two in the Atlantic?