Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis a bheith páirteach sa díospóireacht agus ár ndlúthpháirtíocht a chur in iúl do mhuintir na hÚcráine agus a rá leo go seasaimid leo agus an méid tacaíochta is féidir linn a thabhairt dóibh, ar chabhair dhaonnúil í atá bunaithe ar an bpríomhrud, is é sin gur tír neodrach muid.

I welcome the opportunity to take part in this discussion. I have a slight few more minutes than I had on the last occasion but my message is exactly the same, notwithstanding the blatant breach of international law by Russia, which went in on the day after I made my speech. I stood up as a voice for peace and asked for this country to be that voice as well. That is the role we will have to play and we have no choice about it. I say to mhuintir na hÚcráine we stand with you for every possible human help we can give you. I welcome the package of help offered and the sanctions that have been highlighted. I would like to see the details of those to discern whether some of the sanctions are self-serving or are they actually serving what they are setting out to do. I would also like to see the details for helping the people who come here. I welcome it and also the two €10 million amounts highlighted, although one of them is a matter for discussion on another day. It is dancing on the top of a needle in the context of lethal and non-lethal weapons, but it is for another day.

I wish to pick up on Deputy Jim O'Callaghan's remarks. He said that we are a sovereign, independent country. I totally agree with him on that. He went on to say we should use that independence in making decisions about expelling diplomats and other things. I agree with him on that. We are an independent, sovereign state. We should reflect on what that means and how we can use it because it does not mean sitting idly by. I repeat we will not sit idly by in the face of what is going on. However, we must do that in full knowledge we are a neutral country with a powerful voice. How do we then use that voice? We build on the trust and respect we have gained that allowed us to get a seat on the UN Security Council on a temporary basis because people trusted us. Countries trust us. We are in serious danger of losing that trust if we go with the vast majority of the call here on the right to move forward to a military alliance.

Ours is a tiny country of approximately 5 million people. We have experienced much in our lifetimes and we should build on that and use it. I go forward to what has been mentioned as the hypocrisy of some of our attitudes. We all got a briefing on Yemen today and I have it here. When I hear we stand up to the egregious breaking of human rights I fully agree but we do it on a very selective basis. There have been seven years of war in Yemen and 10,000 is the minimum number of children. When we look at children, it does not matter which country and which war - I abhor it. The minimum number of children is 10,000. The number who have died is 377,000. Time is running on. The figures are here and we have done nothing, as a neutral country. We have stood idly by and watched Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who did not vote for the action against Russia, interestingly enough. We have stood idly by.

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