Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the Deputy for raising this key issue and his comments on a number of issues that spring from it. I mentioned earlier the bravery of journalists. Without journalists in battle, we would not have any picture at all of the atrocities and war crimes that are being committed by an evil regime that has clearly targeted women and children. I mentioned Lynsey Addario's photograph that captured the family that was mowed down as they were leaving a war zone. We have to continue to shine a light on such atrocities.

On the response of the Government and people of Ireland, we are very clear: we work with the EU. In working with the Union, one of the first things we did was offer visa-free accommodation and facilitation. That is the first time ever this arrangement has been used by the EU, which illustrates the gravity of the situation. Essentially, Ukrainians can flee a war zone and come to Ireland, where they can avail of all the rights of residency, access to healthcare, education, accommodation and other things. What that means for us domestically - this morning the Government discussed this - is that in the context of a crisis such as the one we are now experiencing, the duration of which we are unsure, we will have to take steps to circumvent normal approaches to provide accommodation at the scale required and match it with access to childcare and education, in particular. It will be an enormous challenge at a scale we have never dealt with before. The pledge register that the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O'Gorman, has initiated has received an incredible response from across the country.

The Government is meeting weekly. The Secretary General is chairing meetings of all Secretaries General to make sure every Department works in a co-ordinated way on this crisis. The key will be to move as fast as we can to deal with the numbers coming in daily. We estimate that more than 2,200 have now arrived in Ireland. All will have access to social protection, social welfare incomes and so forth, which is important. That work is under way. Therefore, a lot has been done in a very short space of time. We have allocated €20 million in humanitarian supports to go through established agencies in the UN, including UNICEF, and the Irish Red Cross to deal with the crisis on the ground close to the borders by way of providing vital supplies. We stand ready in respect of any additional arrangements we need to put in place at that level and any response in the form of having experienced or expert personnel go to various locations to assist our colleagues within the EU.

On the embassy issue, we cannot condone what happened yesterday. It was a complete contravention of the Vienna Convention and in our view it was wrong. Embassies all over the world in different locations must be allowed to operate in safety. We will work in unison with our EU colleagues on all issues to do with sanctions and measures to be taken in response to the Russian aggression.

See this speech in context