Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests, including the ambassador and the Ukrainian community. We also have representatives from the Ukraine civil society forum who have done incredible work in co-ordinating and assisting with our response to this terrible war. In preparation for today's discussion and statements I was trying to cast my mind back to before 24 February 2022 and before the war. When we discuss historic wars we hear about the paradigm shift that happens. It really is hard to remember the time before it but it is nothing compared to the experience of those people in Ukraine and from Ukraine who are experiencing such a living hell right now, with loss of life and with families and communities torn apart. Right now 12 million people are displaced and almost 2 million children are in need of humanitarian assistance. All of this is exacerbated by the USAID freeze and the problematic ways in which we are seeing a response from the US President Donald Trump. The mental weight and impact of the war on the people of Ukraine cannot be underestimated. Bullets and bombs cause scars but even when they do not, there is trauma in fleeing and living under bombardment.

Trump and Putin have decided they want to sit down and find a resolution to the war. I am here today to say this is not how this works. People in any occupied territory, be it Russian-occupied Ukraine or anywhere else, have a right to self-determination. This will not be achieved by two strongmen sitting down and deciding their fate. The UN has been sidelined and the international community has been ignored so far in this. We cannot let this happen. We in Ireland need to use our diplomacy, we need to use our human rights expertise and our profile, and we need to use aid to make sure the situation is resolved.

I thank the Ukrainian people who have come here to Ireland. They have enriched our communities and our lives. They are members of our sports clubs, our schools and our places of work. They have been an absolute joy to integrate into our communities. They have breathed life into communities that were otherwise faltering in parts of Ireland. I also thank the Irish hosts who have been part of providing accommodation to so many Ukrainians who have come here. It is a real success story that we have provided accommodation to this number of people in the Ukrainian community through hosting services. I want to make sure we put on the record that we want to see speedy and full policy proposals coming from the Government on the future of this and how it will be handled.

I will quote two hosts who are friends of mine, Mark O'Mahony and Louise Holden. They chose to open up their home like so many Irish people have done. I asked them to put into words what their experience has been. They told me that a mother and her young daughter from Kyiv stayed with them for a year and they saw, behind the news, a young family uprooted and dreams and plans shattered. They said it felt right for them to lend these people a hand and they were rewarded for it. They saw a young woman study, get qualified and start a job in finance. They saw a young girl gain confidence in a foreign language. They gave their father and family in Ukraine peace of mind that they were safe. They were grateful for the opportunity to do it and it made them proud to be European and proud to be Irish.

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