TDs have been told that 323 million people across the world are on the brink of starvation as they stood for a minute’s silence to commemorate the millions who died in a famine in Ukraine 90 years ago.
The Dáil stood in tribute to the dead of the Holodomor, also known as the great famine, a man-made disaster in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 in which millions of Ukrainians died.
As the war in Ukraine continues into its tenth month, in an unexpected intervention in the Dáil, Leas Cheann Comhairle Catherine Connolly said it was an initiative of Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl to remember the 1930s famine in Ukraine.
It affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union and Ukraine had to produce larger quotas of grain than other regions.
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Ms Connolly also asked TDs in that minute’s silence to consider that in May of this year, the estimates were that the number of people across the world who will experience crisis levels of hunger in 2022 has risen to 181 million, but it was now 345 million.
“And the G7 say that 323 million are on the brink of starvation. One person was dying from hunger every 48 seconds when this was written in May and now it is one every 36 seconds.
“So it’s in that context I ask you to stand up today for a minute silence to commemorate a specific famine.”
