H.E. Mrs. Larisa Miculet:

I will try to be brief this time. I thank the Deputy for his words of support for meeting our needs. I have with me details of a bank account that our Ministry of Finance has opened for Ukrainian refugees. For example, if someone donates to the UN Refugee Agency, he or she can concretely stipulate that part of the donation go through this. I will leave the details for the committee. We are discussing other needs permanently with the EU.

Regarding the supports we need from Ireland to meet the Copenhagen criteria, we discuss them weekly. When I arrived, I opened our embassy from scratch. I will be proud of that legacy. When I met Mr. Zurabashvili, he told me to explain our priorities and that this was a European country, which was the first thing we needed. That was true. We are here because Ireland is a European country and has a great deal of experience. Daily and weekly, we discuss our needs with it. We also discuss our needs in terms of transport, fighting hybrid threats, cybersecurity and so on with international partners - EU member states - under different initiatives, for example, the Eastern Partnership. One of its pillars has to do with resilience and we are being helped in that regard. We are dealing with these matters daily and are asking for concrete things.

In general, we hope that the Irish voice will be loud in all European structures. Ireland has the right to criticise us, but while criticising us, please support us. We will react to criticisms, but we need them to be supportive.

Regarding border crossing capacity, we started speaking with the EU lately. I can share with the committee that we are asking about the need to strengthen border controls and security. We need an additional 600 people if the work there is to be done in the dignified way that is expected where people face such tragedies in their lives. We also need to enhance our capacity in civil protection and emergency situations. The Deputy asked about our threats and risks. We need to enhance our asylum and migration capacities because 4,000 people have already asked for asylum in our country. We need to strengthen those capacities quickly.

I hope I have answered the questions.