Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I draw the Leader's attention to the fact that today is the 36th anniversary of the explosion at Chernobyl. It was the darkest day in the history of humanity because of its everlasting consequences. In 2016, Ms Adi Roche was invited to speak before the UN General Assembly on the fact that we need a day of remembrance, that Chernobyl is something which can never be consigned to history and that it is very important we remember the ongoing suffering from generation to generation. I had the honour of chairing the press conference held by Adi Roche this morning to mark the 36th anniversary. Ms Raisa Miknovitch Carolan spoke during it. She is a now a fine young woman with a master's degree in criminology, but she spoke of her experience in an orphanage with the disabilities that flowed from being a child living with the consequences of Chernobyl. She spoke very nobly about how she has overcome that. She was one of the Chernobyl children who visited Ireland and was eventually adopted by her Irish family. She gave strong testimony of her current support of children with disabilities in Ukraine, of their experiences in Ukraine and of supporting them in coming to Ireland. As the Leader knows, I have been involved with organisations in Ireland in supporting them to bring children with disabilities here.

This morning, Adi Roche spoke with the passion with which she inspires me about up-to-date reports from the Chernobyl exclusion zone and the additional harm done there by the Russian takeover of the plant.They have now left but while there, they set fires, dug up areas and exposed the area again to radiation. Five coachloads of Russian soldiers were taken away very ill as a consequence of radiation poisoning. The people in the community are again being harmed. This morning's press conference highlighted the ongoing threat from the Russians around Chernobyl who are weaponising it against the global community. There are also 15 other nuclear facilities in Ukraine and the potential threat of them to be used as a weapon of war. The call this morning was for the UN to come out and state that these are no-war zones and that they cannot possibly become a threat and be weaponised in the manner implicit in some of the statements from the Russian leadership. I wanted to put this on the record here and to recognise that we will never forget the people of Chernobyl and the generations that continue to be impacted by it.