Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister, Deputy Coveney, for his opening statement. I welcome the Ukrainian ambassador, Larysa Gerasko, and her wonderful team to the Chamber. I hope they feel welcome because they certainly are. My views on the Ukrainian-Russian conflict and crisis are well-known at this stage from previous contributions on Leaders' Questions prior to and since Christmas and at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence. There is no point in me repeating what I have already said. Unfortunately my concerns have come to light and we are now most likely looking at the largest conflict in Europe since the Second World War about to break out. Coupled with that will be the largest humanitarian catastrophe in living memory on this continent. Unfortunately this seems to be the direction of travel at present.

I will not use my time to retrace my steps. I will focus on two groups of Irish people who regularly get forgotten and who are in Ukraine at present. The first group is our wonderful team at the Department of Foreign Affairs who were in the embassy in Kyiv. They have been there for nine months, since the embassy opened last June. I pass on my respect and admiration to the ambassador, Therese Healy, and her team. It was absolutely the correct decision for our embassy to remain on location with the other EU 27 member states rather than to withdraw. It is exactly the way it should have been. However, I am not convinced we have made the optimum security and safety arrangements for the protection of the team there. I would be grateful to hear the thoughts of the Minister of State in this regard.

Many of the foreign embassies in Dublin have a very small security detachment on location to protect the premises and the people and to protect secure communications and sensitive documentation. This is entirely their prerogative. After all, it is their sovereign national territory. The Defence Forces and the Department of Foreign Affairs have an excellent relationship. They even share the same Minister at this stage. The Defence Forces and the Department of Foreign Affairs have deployed together in the past, to the embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone and in Nigeria. It is something that should be considered in this instance because of the hostile nature of where they are based. What a very small discreet Defence Forces team could bring to the table is it could deploy with armoured Toyota land cruisers rather than the soft skin vehicles there at present. It could also provide security and contingency planning for evacuation. Most important, it could provide medical backup in the event of things going wrong. We have seen the amount of jamming and cyberattacks at present. It could provide secure communications back to Iveagh House or Defence Forces headquarters. This is something that should be considered if it has not been already. I will leave that in the capable hands of the Minister.

The second group of people I want to mention are the 11 Irish citizens seconded to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. I am glad the Minister made reference to it earlier. These are fantastic people. They are completely unarmed. They have been based there for several months. Some of them have been based there for a couple of years. A number of them are based in the Donbas region on both sides of the line of separation. I mention this for several reasons. Other Deputies in the House quite rightly raised the fact there is a lot of disinformation and propaganda flowing around. It is very important to have people on location providing impartial objective verification of information. It is also important that our people out there should be supported. There are employment contract irregularities associated with the 11 people out there. They received verbal commitments in the past on a stipend from the Department of Foreign Affairs but it has yet to be delivered. It is important these wonderful people are not out of pocket for the exceptionally challenging, difficult and vital work they are doing.

I utterly condemn the conduct, behaviour and activities of the Russian military in and around Ukraine, particularly in recent days. I very much note and respect the restraint shown by the Ukrainian authorities.

I hope that dialogue, diplomacy and deterrence wins out but I fear that we have passed the point of no return and that we are heading towards conflict. Ireland should be prepared for the indirect consequences that will arrive on our shores as a result.

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