Cathal Berry (Kildare South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I wholeheartedly approve of and endorse the motion. As the House will be aware, I have been raising concerns about the Ukraine situation in recent months. Unfortunately, those concerns were well founded and now we are in a very dodgy place whereby Europe is once again at war, for the first time in the 21st century from the point of view of a land war.

I utterly condemn the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, that is, not only the fact it is happening but also the manner in which it is being done. We should not forget the bogus peace talks that were engaged in at the very start, where not only was time wasted from a European point of view but Mr. Putin used that time to pre-position his troops before he launched his attack. We should never forget that. Moreover, the conduct of the Russian ambassador is beneath contempt and should certainly be remembered. He came to this Parliament twice in the past 12 months and lied through his teeth. Nevertheless, that was good because we saw his true colours and every time that he said an attack was not going to happen, we knew instantly that it would, which certainly helped from a preparation point of view.

The targeting of civilians in Ukraine is outrageous, as are the use of cluster munitions and the completely unacceptable escalation of the nuclear alert status from the baseline. While I absolutely condemn the activities of the Russian Federation, I commend the conduct of the Ukrainian Administration and would like to see it continue.

First, we have to remember the reason Ukraine is in this situation is that in 1994, it voluntarily agreed to hand over all its nuclear weapons. Under the Budapest Memorandum, they gave Russia all their nuclear warheads in return for what they thought were security guarantees. Ukraine utterly honoured its part of the agreement whereas we can see the Russian Federation utterly ignored its part.

We should also remember that if you compare the two presidents, President Zelenskiy of Ukraine and President Putin of Russia, you can see a completely different approach. One President is at home with his people and easy and comfortable in their presence and the other President sits at the end of a long table utterly afraid of his own shadow, basically, afraid of a few Covid bugs, not the hard man that we have been told he was in the past.

I also welcome the response of the international community. The sanctions regime is comprehensive and it was swift. Ireland played a significant part from that point of view - the fact that there are financial sanctions, a travel ban and all the odds and sods that go with it - but the public displays of solidarity are important as well. The lighting up of the buildings is absolutely essential. It really motivates the Ukrainian people and demotivates those Russian soldiers who have access to the Internet.

Most importantly, I very much approve of the upgrade of Ukraine's accession to the European Union. It is now being classed as an accession candidate. That political embrace is hugely important because President Putin - I should say "Mr. Putin" - basically thought by his actions he would be able to remobilise the old Soviet Union. The reality is that he remobilised an entirely different union, the European Union, and it reminds us to go back to first principles in relation to why this Union exists in the first place.

As for the Irish response, I welcome the extra €10 million. From a humanitarian point of view, Ireland was fast out of the blocks in that regard. Humanitarian organisations are getting an extra €10 million. I also welcome the €9.5 million through the European peace facility. It is definitely unprecedented, from Ireland's point of view.

I totally accept the coalition situation where there is a programme for Government. It is a non-judicable programme. It is only a political agreement but it should be honoured because it was voted on by the grassroots of the three constituent parties. However, there are alternative pathways available in relation to the provision of lethal weapons. That situation will develop over the next few days or weeks. I suspect that the Government may have to amend its position in that regard.

We can do more. First, in respect of the Russian Embassy, I have listened to the counterarguments over the past few days as to whether the Russian ambassador should go home or should stay. I propose a compromise. At the very least, the Russian ambassador should be banned from attending the parliamentary precincts here. He is no longer welcome in the Leinster House campus. He lied to the Parliament and he lied to the people. If Leinster House is the people's house, then he should be banned from here. If the Minister wishes to have negotiations with the Russian ambassador, he can bring him to Iveagh House and carpet him there, and I hope the language of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will be neither parliamentary nor diplomatic in that regard. That is what I would suggest.

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