Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I thank Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze for the very comprehensive, sobering and accurate assessment of the situation. I wish to make a brief comment and ask two questions. First, it is important that we express, as a committee representing all parties in our Parliament, our total solidarity with Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze and her parliamentary colleagues in facing the absolutely shocking and unjustified assault on their country by the Russian Federation. On Ukraine's application for membership of the EU, I think Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze accurately reflected Ireland's very strong support of it. The visit of the Speaker of our Parliament and the Chair of the Senate to Kyiv last weekend was undertaken not only to support Ukraine, but to be advocates across the EU. I think that should be stated.

As to my two questions, the issue of the export of grain is a critical one, as Russia now uses food as a weapon of war and starvation as a threat to the world. Ms Klympush-Tsintsadze was very sanguine, almost pessimistic, in terms of what can be done to export Ukrainian grain. They are saying that the rail routes could only export some 30% of the grain. Is there a possibility and what can be done at an EU level to ensure that the grain that is there and which is vitally needed by hungry people across the globe can be exported? What do we need to do internationally to provide safe corridors for the transport of grain? Do the witnesses' have a view on that?

My second question relates to our visit to Romania and Moldova as a parliamentary committee, which was eye-opening for all of us. One of the places we visited was Palanca in southern Moldova, which is the crossing point that is closest to Odesa. I would be interested in hearing the witnesses' assessment of the following. There was a real fear that if Odesa was assaulted by the Russian Federation, there would be a mass exodus into Moldova, which would overwhelm it, and we wondered how that would be dealt with. Do the witnesses have a view on the conduct of the war in terms of the vulnerability of Odesa and that southern corridor across the Black Sea?