John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be brief as many questions have been covered already. I welcome both ambassadors. I had the honour of meeting Mr. Zurabashvili previously before Covid-19 struck. I have not had the privilege of meeting Mrs. Miculet until today. She is very welcome to the meeting. It is her first time to address the committee and I welcome the fact that Moldova has opened an embassy in Ireland.

I wish to raise a few points. I will start with Mrs. Miculet. She addressed the issue of Transnistria, and there has been a lot of focus on that. I believe Russian peacekeeping forces are still stationed in Transnistria. It might be a low number of perhaps 2,000, but there are concerns. I have concerns. Given the strong defence that is being put up by the Ukrainian people, the Russians probably have not made as much progress as the Russian military had anticipated. One of the key ports there is Odessa. Taking a strategic view of what the Russians want to achieve in terms of curtailing imports through the Black Sea into Ukraine, that would be one of the primary focuses from a military perspective. What concerns are there that the Russians may use Transnistria as a staging post to move from there to Odessa, given the slowness of the military advances due to the staunch defence by the Ukrainians?

Second, the ambassador might not be aware of it, but the Irish Government has announced, following a Cabinet meeting this morning, that it will take in 500 refugees from Moldova. That news is only breaking now. It is welcome news, but it appears to be a very low figure. The ambassador gave a figure of 340,000 refugees in Moldova, which means that 4% of the population is made up of Ukrainian refugees. The 500 that Ireland has agreed to take in is only approximately 1.5% of the Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. It is a very low number and I am really concerned about that. I do not expect the ambassador to have all the details because the news is only breaking now, but the initial figure of 500 seems extraordinarily low.

Then there is Georgia and the ongoing occupation by Russia of 20% of its territory. The ambassador and I have spoken about this previously. Obviously, there is a similarity in Russia's approach to all these countries, whether it is Crimea, Transnistria or Georgia. It stages an attack on a country, occupies it and then tries to annex it. While there are UN peacekeeping troops there - Ireland has boots on the ground there - what more does the ambassador thinks the UN Security Council should and could be doing, given the position held by Ireland on the Security Council?

There is a final point. The ambassador mentioned in his opening statement the prospect of an Irish embassy opening in Georgia. What are his thoughts on that? Where does he think that process is? It would be hugely beneficial in terms of Georgia's incorporation and inclusion in the overall EU project. Perhaps he could give us an analysis of the current position of the process for opening an Irish embassy in Georgia.