Green Party Statement on Ukraine
The announcement of the immediate lifting of visa restrictions between Ukraine and Ireland has been welcomed by Green Party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Vincent P Martin.
The measure means that people who feel it’s safe to leave Ukraine can do so without needing to arrange a visa in advance. This will be of considerable benefit to Ukrainian people with family members already living here.
“The scenes we are witnessing on our TV screens of Ukrainian people packing their bags and fleeing their homes with their children have filled Irish people with horror,” Senator Martin, who is the Green Party’s foreign affairs spokesman, has said.
“We must do what we can to help Ukrainian people fleeing this attack on their homeland to find safety,” he said.
Martin condemned Russia’s unprovoked and savage attack on its democratic neighbour, which he said represents a brutal rupturing of the multilateral, rules-based system which has served Europe so well since the Second World War.
“We had thought that the era of countries invading one another had been consigned to the past and that humanity had evolved to a more enlightened phase where disputes are resolved through diplomacy,” he said.
“Vladimir Putin has abandoned this post-war consensus on a whim, which is why Europe must adopt the most severe sanctions possible to punish the Russian regime for this despicable act.”
“The sanctions agreed by the European Commission are a welcome first step but if recent history in the Balkans has taught us anything it is the fatal consequences of doing too little, too late. In this light, we welcome the Government’s call to add the Swift financial transaction system to the sanctions list, as requested by Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We do not want to look back on 2022 as the year the EU failed to show what a united front could do in the face of barbarism”.
Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, and the Irish Red Cross (IRC) have now launched a pledge register which will allow people to register accommodation and other services to assist Ukrainian refugees.
The Red Cross pledge register is now open and accessible.
