Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is very hard, particularly coming into Christmas. I would like to ask the ambassador to talk about the so-called adoptions, which should be called abductions. I spoke to a friend of mine who is a teacher. She told me the Ukrainian children in her school are clever and diligent. They are doing very well here. I would also like to ask the ambassador to speak about how the embassy could help Ukrainian professionals who have come to Ireland, such as teachers, doctors and nurses, to work, have their qualifications recognised more quickly and help with services such as education for Ukrainian children, etc.

I am confused, Chairman. I thought Mr. Merezhko was going to talk about peace efforts but I did not hear much about that. Talking about genocidal wars, there are two awful wars at the moment in Ukraine and Gaza - I believe today has been absolutely horrendous. All war is horrendous and I would like to hear more about peace efforts. We brought peace to our country and we had to give up the Six Counties. Our island is not united. Getting peace in our country meant us having to row back. We had a referendum and we had to give up our ownership of the Six Counties. That is hard. You have to keep working for peace but we are still in a better place in Ireland than we were back when the war was going on.

I wish to express solidarity with the older people of Ukraine. We are very child-focused but older people in Ukraine might have themselves, and would certainly have family members, who survived the famine. I spoke previously about the famine in Ukraine. Those people would also have lived through the Second World War and the occupation by Russia. I express solidarity with them too.