Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ambassador for his presentation. His country faces an extraordinary challenge with the refugee crisis. A country with a population of 5 million has already received more than 270,000 displaced people. This morning's exchange habes en useful to understand the practical and logistical problems because we are just suddenly experiencing those ourselves with the refugees who have come here. We have challenges with accommodation, health, education and employment - all the issues the ambassador has just raised. This morning's exchange is very useful to examine how Slovakia is dealing with these issues.

Obviously, the Slovak Republic is part of NATO. How important is Slovakia's NATO membership for its security and defence? The ambassador was earlier asked how fearful he was about the Russian Federation's intentions. I would be interested to hear his views on that.

In his presentation, the ambassador rightly points out that the EU has provided financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and that it needs to examine Ukraine's membership of the EU. The EU has obviously provided lethal weapons and non-lethal equipment to Ukraine through the European peace facility. Does the ambassador believe the EU is doing enough for Ukraine? Similar to my question about NATO, how important is EU membership to the Slovak Republic? Does the ambassador see this entire conflict in terms of a battle for the survival of liberal democratic values and the threat to democracy? How big an issue is that? Is it a factor in what is happening in the ambassador's region at this time?