Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are all affected and appalled by the images we are seeing in Ukraine. On the sanctions that are already in place, almost half of the 33 Irish special purpose vehicles, SPVs, used by Russian banks and companies are subject to the current sanctions and about €35 billion is involved, a lot of which washes through. The professional firms that manage the SPVs are obliged to freeze the sanctioned assets but the Central Bank does not regulate them. What initiatives are being put in place to identify the true owners in order that the sanctions that have been put in place are applying and in order that people cannot circumvent them? We called for the Russian ambassador to be expelled and he is not immune to the images we are all seeing. Yet he is putting out statements denying what is patently obvious from independent sources. How can someone like that be relied on to be an intermediary or diplomat when he is denying what is happening? That is an affront to us and he needs to be expelled.

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