Mr. Eamon Gilmore:

I thank the Senator for her contribution, which is a good note on which to end. Even before the sentences were handed down, we had been looking at how to keep the Belarus situation progressing and attention focused on it. We had decided that we would give particular attention to the individual cases of political prisoners and those who, in many cases, are not as well known as Mr. Tsikhanouskaya and the others who were sentenced today. I have reacted publicly in the past few hours to the sentences today. I expect that others in the system and our representative and spokesperson will probably be doing the same. We can expect quite a strong reaction from the European Union. However, we should also remember that we are talking here about people. I mentioned earlier the practice of the adopting of individual prisoners by members of parliaments in member states. It is very good at maintaining contact with those prisoners, insofar as it can be done. It is important for their morale that they hear the support, and not just that the support is happening, because the regime will try to stop them getting the news of the support, but that they hear the support that there is around the world. We will do everything we can to get them released. I will leave it at that.