Colm Brophy

And that family, I would imagine, is huge in that.

It expires in March, yes.

So presumably none of this will come into effect until then anyway.

Well, the EU temporary protection directive is due to expire in March.

I think most European governments, including our own, will believe that that will obviously be looked at by the Commission and that there will be some...

looking to see what needs to be put in place to replace it.

Rather than just a straight rollover of it, there could be an altered version of temporary protection.

There will be something looking at it.

We're very conscious, Ireland as a government, the European Commission is, that we are still dealing with an ongoing war situation.

And we're still quite clear that our overwhelming...

decision-making process is in how we support Ukraine in all the decisions we make.

So any decision around temporary protection or any decision in changing what comes after temporary protection will be made in the context of what is happening within the war and how we can continue to support Ukraine and its government and people.

Well, we have to be very careful in how you look at that because, yes, we have to recognise on one level the incredible contribution which the Ukrainian community has made here and so many of them are working and really delivering things.

We don't want to do that, though, at the expense of Ukraine.

We've always been very much in recognising that our fortune in having so many people able to contribute is unfortunately at the cost of them being able to do it in their home country, which they never wanted to leave by choice.

They were forced out because of the despicable actions of Mr Putin.

But we have benefited, yes, from the Ukrainian community's contribution.

And that is why we recognise that and will be recognising that in terms of looking at how the Ukrainian community interacts with Ireland in the years ahead.

Well, the government don't want it to move in that direction.

What we want to do, and I've been very clear on this, is we want no cliff edges on this.