Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is a substantial amount of grain in storage which cannot be brought out of Ukraine to the rest of the world. As has been rightly pointed, famine is another tool being used by one of the belligerents in this war, namely, Russia. Introducing famine into places like north Africa destabilises the entire geopolitical system.

Ireland is a member of the United Nations Security Council. I am on record as having no faith in the United Nations Security Council and very little faith in the United Nations. However, if we are truly there to protect the individuals of this world and ensure that men, women and children have access to food, then we must put in place a peace-enforcement unit in the Black Sea to open the port of Odesa and allow food to be transferred out of Ukraine to the rest of the world. We cannot sit on our hands and say we will give the Ukrainians everything they need to fight but not provide them with access to the world market and allow them to transfer food to those who need it around the world. Grain sitting in silos in Ukraine today will rot if it is not brought out. Worse still, there will be nowhere to put this year's harvest if we do not empty those silos. The United Nations must prove itself to be an organisation that represents the downtrodden and those who would be oppressed by tyrants. It must provide the necessary tools and equipment to open the ports in Ukraine and allow the food and grain sitting there to be transferred.

Across Europe we have not closed the gas and oil pipelines. We have threatened to do it and we will do it in time. We must open the ports in Ukraine. We must allow the Ukrainian people to transfer what they have which is needed by the rest of the world. When members of the delegation speak to our Ministers and when their ministers speak to our Government and other European governments, two things are needed. We need Ukrainians to be armed in order that they can defend themselves. We need Ukrainian ports open and if that takes a massive naval flotilla to go and open the port in Odesa, that is what we must do. Talk is cheap; let us see action from the United Nations and let us see it now.