Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No country has navigated an extraordinary relationship with Russia over such a long period of time peacefully and in co-existence more than Finland has. The Prime Minister of Finland told me that everything they were taught during their school days about the potential fear and threat of what could happen was realised in the invasion of Ukraine. Given that it is physically on the border of Russia there is a fundamental question that begs to be answered, namely, who will come to protect them if Russia invades. No one is obliged to do so. There is a mutual assistance clause in the European Union which is not as well defined as the NATO provisions are for a country like Finland. Ukraine is not in NATO and it is defending itself. Ukraine is getting support and weaponry from outside but it is young Ukrainian men who are on the front line.

The Deputies should never take from the fact that the reason Finland and Sweden are applying for NATO membership is the immoral and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine by Russia. There is no other rationale for it. That has been the clear catalyst for their applications and I would not call it a shock doctrine or say that people are delighted that they can now join NATO. That is not it and public opinion has changed dramatically. As Deputy McAuliffe said, the vote in the Finnish Parliament is indicative of the degree to which public opinion has shifted in both countries because of what has happened. What is happening is barbaric by any standard and entire towns and cities are being levelled in Ukraine. If you are near the border or on the border you have a different perspective; that is the reality of life and it is human nature.

I do not buy the argument that NATO planning major exercises is somehow comparable with what is happening in Ukraine. It is not and NATO has attacked nobody.

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