Senator Gerard Craughwell- speech from 8 Nov 2022

I would like to acknowledge the presence of the ambassador here at the committee today. For those of you in Ukraine, you have an ambassador here in Dublin and staff who work extremely hard for those displaced citizens who arrive in this country, many of whom I have met. A number of things. The chairman adverted to the issue of generators. I can understand that if we are living in high-rise apartment blocks and the Russians clearly have targeted the infrastructure, particularly electricity, gas and water, I can understand that the demand for high-powered generators must be fairly high. It would be handy, if it was possible, to have that quantified, what exactly you need and to see then what part Ireland can play in the provision of generators. I also met your military, Tanaiste, about a week ago now, and he expressed that desire to have winter tents and winter clothing made available. Again, if we could have some idea of the sort of numbers that we are talking about, that would be quite helpful. With respect to support for Ukraine, I speak now as an independent and not in speaking for Ireland in any way, but I find it regrettable that we have weapons here that we could provide to Ukraine. Having provided military helmets, medical aid and first aid or flak jackets, the move to provide weapons is a very short step and there is no question with respect to where we stand with respect to the war. We are 100% supportive and behind Ukraine's struggle today. We will keep advocating for the provision of what limited weapons we have. We don't have a whole lot, being totally honest about it. I am concerned about the number of displaced people who are still attempting to enter Ireland. Believe me when I say this, it is not that we do not want your citizens here. We want to provide any accommodation, any resources we can, but right now we have nothing left. Your people that are coming here are coming to very, very poor accommodation and very poor circumstances. The country will do everything it possibly can, but we have to be realistic with respect to what we can offer. Indeed, your own ambassador has made that point quite clearly here in recent days. All I can say is from our point of view here, we will continue to fight the struggle with you. We think that things may become what I would call a distant war over the winter period, where there will be less face-to-face contact and more missile attacks, particularly long-range missiles into Kiev and into other major cities, and that we will unfortunately have to watch from the outside. With respect to your comments on the United Nations Security Council, I totally support what you are saying. I do not believe that the Soviet Union should have a seat there, because there is no Soviet Union. But then again, I do not believe that the United Nations Security Council is fit for purpose any more. I do know our government has tried to change the veto that exists within the Security Council, and that is a key issue. I would like to think that the OSCE would have a bigger role, but I understand your answer from that. I really do not have any questions other than to say to you today, Slava, Ukraine, the very best of luck to you. We are with you. Thank you, Senator Cockwell. I see Olga Rodenko has her hand up. Olga, I invite you to come back, and then we will go to Alexander to deal with Senator Cockwell's observations. I just wanted to add a short note. Yes, of course, we appreciate a lot of your help with our displaced people. We do know how well they are treated in Ireland. I know I spoke to a lot of people, and Ireland is one of the best countries for them to live. I know you do not have enough accommodation. We do know this fact, and we are not, like, have any complaints, no complaints whatsoever. We do know that you do as much more than you can do. So, yes, we do appreciate a lot. And in the list of needs, what we need, in addition to all these generators and warm clothing and stuff, what else we need is the replacement parts to these electricity plants facilities. Yeah, because they are destroyed, and now we are running out of our own supplies, yeah, the electricity companies, yeah. And what we do need for sure is, I don't know what exactly parts are called, yeah. But these replacement parts to fix these transformators, these power plants, so all these details, you know, to fix it. So, this is, like, my comment. Thank you. Thank you. That's an interesting point. Thank you. Alexander? Thank you. The good news that the power, electricity is back. While we were talking to you, to us, you know, when we have back electricity, the first thing what we do, we are trying to recharge our smartphones, iPhones, you know. And so, and it's a good news that power is back. And I think it's also a result of our talk, of our friendly conversation. It's a good sign. It's a good sign. You know, to tell you the truth, Ireland is one of my favorite countries, even though I have never been to your country. But I know your literature, you know, and interestingly, when I met your people, when I meet your people, there is a kind of, I cannot explain this, but there is a term like-minded people, you know. And we understand each other perfectly. We understand each other, sometimes even there is no need in words for us to understand each other. I don't know how to explain this. Maybe there are some parallels in our history or in our culture, in our mentality. But, you know, I always view you as our true friends. And I understand that Ireland is not a superpower which can provide us with all the weaponry we need and so on. But I see that you are wholeheartedly doing everything that you can to us. And we value it very highly. Believe me, we value it very highly and we view you and your country, your people as our true friends. And to me Ireland is a superpower in terms of culture and in political terms. Because you have influence, you have very strong influence, for example, in the United States. In the United States. Please use your influence. And I am not ashamed to ask you to do this. Please use your influence in the United States to help Ukraine. To help Ukraine. Because your diaspora is highly respected. One of my colleagues, one of the congressmen, he has Irish last name. And I was surprised when he says, I'm Irish. You know, I'm Irish. So it means that you have influence. Please try to support us also in this way.