H.E. Dr. Laureniu-Mihai tefan:

We do have refugee camps. There are more than 400 of them throughout the country. Basically, there are three hotspots. One is at Siret in northern Romania, close to the hub. It is on the northern border between Romania and Ukraine. The European hub is close to the airport, so it is very easy in terms of access. People are coming by road from Ukraine. It is a different situation in the context of the Republic of Moldova because there are two ways. One is a green corridor, with buses taking people from the Moldovan border and bringing them into Romania. Basically, Moldova is spared from getting involved with this transportation. Otherwise, we increased the number of train connections between Chisinu and Iasi. There are free rides for people coming from Chisinu. Many of those who reach the border by road or on foot are brought to Iasi by train. They then spread out depending on their destination. Some of them wish to go to Bucharest or Timisoara or to the airport for onward travel to Ireland or other countries. Most of the refugee camps are in buildings such as sporting facilities, hotels and things like that but there are some temporary camps. The army set up 15 camps that are quite comfortable. They can host 400 persons and have huge waiting rooms of 200 sq. m. There is a similar facility at Otopeni airport, where there is a special line for people who come from Ukraine. I hope that answers the Senator's questions.

I again acknowledge the support of the Romanian community. Many of them have made collections. A transport company run by a Romanian immediately collected goods from all over Ireland and shipped them to the border area and even to Ukraine. There are some tracks going into Ukraine in the area near Chisinu.

Building on what Senator Horkan has said, I again emphasise my remarks in respect of visiting the area and seeing what is happening. Sadly, the war in Ukraine has brought the attention of Irish officials and the Irish people to the region, which may not have been known previously to that extent here. My mission, along with the Georgian and Polish ambassadors, is to open the eyes of Ireland more and more to these European countries that will join the European Union at some point. As we are discussing at our various meetings, Europe is shrinking and, especially with the increasing number of flight connections, we will very soon become neighbours in the metaphorical sense. We have to look after each other. Ireland will have certain needs in terms of cybersecurity and defence and it may need Poland and Romania at some point in that regard, although I hope it does not. In terms of co-operation, however, these are areas in which our countries can bring contributions.

We thank the committee for its continuous attention to the issues in Ukraine. Of course, we stand with Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. We will continue to work together and I hope we will be able to organise visits of Romanian officials to Ireland, but also of the committee members and their colleagues to Romania and neighbouring countries.