Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In his powerful address to the House this morning, President Zelenskyy made clear that there is more Ireland can do to support Ukraine, and that our leadership does matter. We know that we can expel the Russian ambassador from Ireland. I ask the Taoiseach again to do so. We also know that all Russian banks should be excluded from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, SWIFT, and an embargo should be placed on Russian oil and gas. The Ukrainian ambassador, Ms Larysa Gerasko, also highlighted actions we can take. In particular, I ask the Taoiseach to ensure that all Irish ports are closed to Russian vessels and goods in light of reports that there is a Russian-registered vessel at one of our ports this week.

I also wish to ask whether the Government is going to act to ensure that existing sanctions cannot be sidestepped. In response to a question from my colleague, Deputy Nash, last week, the Governor of the Central Bank confirmed there are 15 to 16 out of 33 Russian-linked section 110 special purpose vehicles, SPVs, in total in the International Financial Services Centre, IFSC, connected to persons against whom sanctions been levelled. Can we legislate to ensure that this practice is stopped?

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