Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues, the Members of this House and the international community, including the ambassadors representing Turkey, Korea, Cyprus, Singapore, the Vatican City, the Philippines, Jamaica, Colombia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Iceland, Portugal, Georgia, Norway, Indonesia, Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, Australia, Estonia, Latvia, Israel, Greece, Lesotho, Brazil, Finland, New Zealand, Lithuania, Guatemala, Slovakia and Kenya who showed up to show solidarity with our Ukrainian friends and with the Ukrainian ambassador. I thank them all for turning up to support our coffee morning.

I contacted the Irish League of Credit Unions to see if it would be interested in partnering with the Irish Red Cross so that its community banking facilities could be used by people who may not necessarily want to donate online, for whatever reason, to the Irish Red Cross. Credit unions are the grassroots banks in our communities. I wanted to see if they would team up with the Irish Red Cross and they willingly got involved. That donation facility is being launched in more than 500 credit unions over the next week and that should bring in lots of money for the Red Cross. It is heartbreaking to hear the stories of what is happening on the ground in Ukraine and it is incumbent on all of us to do whatever we can. This is just the start of what I would like to do. I thank my colleagues for their support.