Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for his response to my question earlier. I certainly did not expect to have such an immediate response to my first set of Leaders' Questions as the leader of the Labour Party. I thank him and commend him, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney, on acting to expel four senior Russian diplomats. Does this mean that the position of the Russian ambassador is now under threat? I very much hope the Government will see fit to move to expel him too. My party, the Labour Party, as an internationalist party and a member of the Party of European Socialists, PES, has consistently stood with the people of Ukraine, and with the people of Syria when they endured horrific bombardment and attack from Putin through the al-Assad puppet regime. We have also stood with the people of Yemen and Palestine.

We can see daily the sort of horrendous suffering people are enduring in Ukraine. The people of Mariupol are enduring that now just as the people of Aleppo did when it was under siege. We have a strong track record of solidarity with people under assault and threat from the sort of brutal regime that Putin personifies. Will the Taoiseach now take further steps to expel Putin's ambassador here, having moved so swiftly and in such a welcome fashion to expel four senior diplomats?

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