H.E. Mrs. Larisa Miculet:

I thank the Deputy for his words of support and his very positive words about the progress that Moldova has made. I thank members in general for their support. As I said, we always follow the discussions in the Oireachtas and at this committee. This positive and optimistic support that we hear energises our people and authorities.

Regarding the 85,000 refugees who are in our country, as I said, we are very glad and determined to support them by as much as they need that support. As we discussed at this committee in February and March, at the beginning it was a little challenging because there was a big flow of women and children who needed protection and the mechanism to do so was not in place. Currently, however, everything is going very smoothly because we have not been left alone. International organisations are with us, as are European member states and the European Commission. There is a very clear mechanism on how to support accommodation and other aspects, for instance children's education. Children can attend schools and even learn some subjects through the Ukrainian language. The Moldovan authorities concluded that our capabilities were not as strong at the beginning, but at this moment we are saying we are strong enough because we managed, in a very good manner, to organise this process. As was said earlier and as I reiterate now, this is because it involved our brothers, sisters and neighbours. Moldova is helping as an entire community. We always say words of appreciation to the Moldovan people who stepped in and did a lot of work by themselves.

A large number of people recently expressed, and constantly express, support for this path of European Union integration. They first expressed their support legally through elections. For instance, during elections for the President of Moldova, we had 12,000 people in Ireland, who were in the middle of tough Covid restrictions and everything, whose vote was very much pro-European. This aspiration was reiterated in later parliamentary elections in Moldova, and those held in Ireland. Some 99% of the votes were pro-European.

As I said, different organised attempts were made to destabilise political and other aspects. I am speaking of the political situation in the country. Paid protests and other different tools were used. That is why the President of Moldova, Ms Maia Sandu, called this national assembly on 21 May for people to show and speak again about what the Moldovan people want. Different polls show a high level of support for the European Union. On this occasion, and we are very grateful that Ms Roberta Metsola was also with us to show solidarity, it was reiterated that the people of Moldova, and they will never go back, want to follow only a European path. That assembly took place in Moldova and in more than 40 cities around the world, including Dublin and Cork, where the diaspora expressed its support. They live here and know that.