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

I thank the Taoiseach for the updates on the Council of Europe and the conversation with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. We all look forward to President Zelenskyy's address to these Houses tomorrow. I also want to pay tribute to Larysa Gerasko, the Ukrainian ambassador, who has been to the fore in highlighting how we can do more to support the people of Ukraine. We have seen huge welcome and support for Ukrainian refugees coming here and notable efforts by volunteers and State employees to ensure refugees feel supported here. We have to escalate our response and our condemnation of Russia, particularly as we see evidence growing of atrocities being committed against civilians in Bucha and with the siege of Mariupol. Can we now move to expel the Russian ambassador? I am conscious that many others have asked for this and we have seen Lithuania move independently to do this. Although it was welcome to see our Government expelling four senior diplomats from the embassy last week there are still 27 diplomats on Orwell Road in Dublin in the Russian Embassy. We see Ciara Phelan reporting in today's Irish Mirrorthat many Irish people here are choosing to give those diplomats the cold shoulder but it is time for the Government to show its utter condemnation of these appalling atrocities being committed by Russia by expelling our ambassador. We should go further than that by also placing an embargo on Russian oil and gas.

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