Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the ambassador. I have to say that this is the most surreal meeting I have ever attended, and I am not that young anymore. What the ambassador described in her opening statement is barbaric and horrific. The stoicism and pride of the Ukrainian people and the courage they have displayed to the world is phenomenal. I wish to say that and not just talk about money, which I will concentrate on.

The most important thing the ambassador said is that we do not have time to wait. I agree with my colleague, Deputy Richmond. I do not know what we are waiting for or why we have to do things a bit at a time to see if something causes a little more pain to the Russians that will then allow them to react in the way we want. The ambassador said that the sanctions we have imposed to date have only cost €30 billion. For such an enormously wealthy country, that is a drop in the ocean. It will have very little impact. For the record, the fourth round of sanctions that the EU bloc announced last night do not go nearly far enough, in my opinion. The facts that we still have our ports open, that 100% of diplomats from Russia are still here and that an enormous number of incredibly wealthy countries are still doing business with Russia are not good enough. The time for talking has well come and passed. We should be jumping up and down and ensuring all those actions are taken, whether unilaterally or as an EU bloc. Obviously, it would be far more powerful if we all did it together. It should happen now. We all need to be far more vocal than we have been. Not to be disrespectful, the humanitarian aid and the generosity of Irish people are renowned, and we will continue to do that for as long as needed, but the ultimate aim here has to be that this war has to be stopped, by whatever means.

I hear loud and clear that the top item in Ukraine's requests would be to have a no-fly zone by NATO and to defend against any attack, but I can understand its reluctance. However, as Deputy Richmond said, I believe it will come. What are we waiting for? At present, all we are doing is watching the trauma and distress of the Ukrainian people on our screens on the hour every day. I still do not believe that we appreciate a fraction of what they are going through.

Not to just ramble on, I have a question for the ambassador. She said earlier that there are EU member states that have doubts about Ukraine's application to join the EU. What are those doubts and what can we do to help assuage our colleagues that they need not have doubts and that any of the stuff that cannot be box ticked because of the current environment will be? What can we do to help with that?