H.E. Ms Larysa Gerasko:

I thank the Senator for her great suggestion to communicate with the pharmaceutical companies. I am working with some such companies already and we have received humanitarian aid in the form of medicines, given people alone cannot provide the required volume of medicines. We have a list of what is needed and there are many specific requirements, such as blood and so on. It is not just about collecting goods from people. I would appreciate it if the Senator could contact other pharmaceutical companies or put me in touch with them.

We are working closely with the Departments of Justice and Social Protection and other Departments. We do not have regular meetings with the NGOs but we have set up a project with some of them and with some corporations. They have weekly, or even more frequent, contact with the leaders of our Ukrainian community and they are very supportive also. The consul of our embassy is in daily communication with representatives of the Department of Justice, for example. There are some issues that have yet to be resolved, although I understand Ireland is facing its own challenge in regard to setting up a new procedure for granting international protection status. It is a new procedure, so the Department of Justice needs to organise a process for issuing such certificates. That is just one problem we face.

As for what else can be done, everything is concentrated in Dublin Airport, but Ukrainians are arriving not only there but also to Shannon Airport and elsewhere. We need more points in different airports, as well as more translators. We are working with our community to find translator volunteers to work on behalf of our immigrants.

I forgot to say, in response to Deputy Brady regarding the idea of chartered flights from Poland, that we would be very grateful for that. It is very difficult to buy tickets from Warsaw or Krakow to Dublin. Moreover, we addressed this issue to Ryanair, given it has raised its prices.