Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I first want to remark on the fact that representatives of the Uyghur community were in Leinster House today. It is a testament to the Seanad that we are not afraid to recognise and bring into the House people from any community anywhere in the world who are being subjected to horrendous treatment. I also welcome the Lord Mayor of Cork. It is always a pleasure to see him in the House.

I know the Leader has an interest in issues relating to aviation. She must be aware of the change in the law that took effect on 1 January as a result of a European directive on security clearance for people working at airports. The Garda vetting system is breaking down. Employers do not know who to contact. They do not know how to expedite for clearance people who are brought in to work. We presume, although we do not know, that the clearance procedure involves investigating the backgrounds of family members, as well as the individual concerned. There is some suggestion that people coming from overseas can be Garda vetted much faster than indigenous Irish people. We need to look into this fairly urgently.

There is much talk about Ireland's seat on the United Nations Security Council and how we won it. According to an article in one of today's newspapers, we won it with 945 pairs of socks and with umbrellas, badges and notebooks. Some €125,000 of our hard-earned taxes were used to bring on side the diplomats who would be voting. It is repugnant to everything the United Nations stands for that these annual competitions should take place for a seat that rotates every 20 years in any event. There is something terribly wrong, in a world that is full of inequality and hungry, about us throwing out socks, umbrellas and fancy notebooks in order to win a seat on the United Nations Security Council. It is horrendous.

I will move swiftly along to Ukraine and what is happening there today.On Mr. Putin's suggestion that he would move into eastern Ukraine in a peacekeeping role, there is only one organisation in this world that can decide on peacekeeping and that is the United Nations. If Mr. Putin is that afraid of the possibilities of problems in eastern Ukraine, what he needs to do is to bring it to the United Nations Security Council and let it pick a peacekeeping nation that will look after the needs of the people in eastern Ukraine.

I have been engaging with the Ukrainian ambassador and her staff over the past few days. My heart goes out to them today. They are miles from home and at the end of the day, they have no idea what will happen over the next 24 or 48 hours. We saw that in the incursions into Georgia, there was absolutely no support. We cannot allow that to happen in Ukraine.