Foreign Conflicts
Dail Éireann — 2023-01-31
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Early last year, the Estonian Prime Minister was the first to put forward the idea of utilising Russian assets that have been frozen to facilitate reconstruction in Ukraine. When this suggestion was put forward at the European Council, there was not a big take-up in respect of it. I gave support to Prime Minister Kallas of Estonia and stated that we needed to pursue the matter. Momentum since then has grown significantly, and the proposal put forward is being actively looked at by the European Commission and member states in the context that some frozen assets will be used for reconstruction in Ukraine. The damage there is enormous. Countries that conduct wars that give rise to such savagery and destruction must know that there will be penalties. The resolve of the international community has to be strong, particularly in the aftermath of conflict. It cannot be the same donors all the time that come in and rebuild countries after terrible wars.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-01-31/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:43+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-01-31