Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I take the point regarding some of the miscalculations from a military perspective at the start. I am sure they will be analysed by military experts at different stages. The expectation from many, including Russia clearly, was that Ukrainian cities would effectively fall one after the other - that there would be some initial resistance, but the scale of the Russian military would result in a relatively quick victory. That clearly did not happen. If anything, the Ukrainian resistance strengthened in the first few weeks of this conflict. That was before they received support and assistance from other countries.

What is happening in eastern Ukraine is very different from that because it is almost a war of attrition that involves an extraordinary amount of destruction of property, massive displacement of civilians and some deliberate targeting of civilians to empty out cities. It seems the only way to capture cities militarily is to raze them to the ground. That is what we are seeing. We saw that tactic in Syria and we are now seeing it in eastern Ukraine but it is incredibly brutal. Some of the stories and briefings I have read regarding the human consequences of it are just awful for those soldiers involved and civilians. It involves soldiers on both sides. It is absolutely brutal.

We will have to wait and see. This is now a slow war of attrition. When I say "slow", that does not mean that it is not very large-scale. It relates to movement forward for either side. Nobody is predicting a ceasefire any time soon so we need not be naive about that.

Obviously, we should be looking for those opportunities when they arise, but the appetite is not there on either side. Ukraine's determination to defend itself and its territory and to try to drive occupying Russian forces out of Ukraine, as well as Russia's determination to gain more ground in eastern Ukraine mean, unfortunately, a summer of a continuation of what we have seen in the last number of weeks.

Regarding Georgia, I am very conscious of the pace of accession, particularly if one looks at the western Balkans, for example, and a country such as Serbia. If the process stalls, those who are advocating for accession, and the reforms and changes that are needed to deliver it, start to lose momentum too, where they are making changes but not making progress towards EU membership. That creates a difficulty politically and it creates a vacuum that others, including Russia or certainly Russian influence, are happy to fill. That goes for Georgia as well as for other countries. That said, however, it is necessary to get the balance right and ensure one is not fast-forwarding, for political reasons, an accession process that then does not allow one to maintain standards or to insist on the benchmarks that are needed. Trying to get that balance right is difficult. However, in the context of Georgia, most of those I have spoken to in the European Union see this as an opening of the door, not a closing of the door. It is just not opened to the extent that it was for Ukraine and Moldova, but it is certainly a very clear signal of what the EU wants to facilitate.

On the issue of gas, there has been no discussion of a rationing system per seyet, but we will have to work collectively across the European Union to support member states that face energy shortages this winter. The idea that Ireland is okay and everybody else can fend for themselves is not how the European Union works. That said, there is the way in which gas networks work. We get our gas from Corrib and from the UK interconnection with Scotland. The UK gets most of its gas from Norway and from the North Sea. The UK does not source very much gas at all from Russia. I believe it is in the low single percentage figures. It is just the way the pipeline systems work that the UK does not source from Russia, whereas many countries in the European Union source a huge majority of their gas from Russia. Undoubtedly, if that supply is either shut off by Russia or prevented from coming into the EU by sanctions, there will be a change in how the gas network system operates across Europe and, of course, there will be a change in pricing.