Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The memorandum of understanding which is entered into between the European Commission and the Ukraine Government makes clear that the objective is to support Ukraine's macrofinancial stability given the astute financing needs triggered by the war circumstances. It aims to support structural reforms aimed at improving overall macroeconomic management, strengthening economic governance and transparency and improving conditions for sustainable growth.

These are all obviously necessary preconditions for developing Ukraine to the point where it will be an EU member. It is part of our ultimate hope that would happen. In the MOU, Ukraine commits to ensuring the funds received are spent in an efficient, transparent and accountable manner, which I acknowledge is extremely difficult to do in a war scenario. However, setting up and operating a reporting system will help with that and ensure the availability of sound budgetary information to the Commission in an accessible, timely and comprehensive way. For example, Article 5 of the MOU ensures that the Ukrainian authorities provide monthly reports on revenues and expenditures on the state budget at the level of the major expenditure headings.

I will move to an overview of the European Investment Bank EU for Ukraine Fund. The EIB, in co-operation with the Commission and member states, has made some progress. The fund will enable the EU bank to sustain its support for Ukraine through temporary bridging solutions until longer term EU measures become available. Specifically, the fund will facilitate deployment of public and private sector projects with a major focus on municipal infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, transport networks, water, wastewater treatment facilities, digital cybersecurity capability and improved access to finance for Ukrainian entrepreneurs. It is coming to things from slightly different angles but this is about stabilisation, redevelopment, reconstruction, and helping Ukraine move to the sort of reporting and transparency requirements that would ultimately be on an EU candidate state.