Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In numerous instances, we have seen Russia try deliberately to provoke division or discord in democratic nations. I am absolutely convinced that Russia, in this particular manoeuvre, whatever it is, will try to do the same. It will try to divide us. It tried to do it with the fishers and tried to do it many other times over recent years. There were certainly people supporting it in that endeavour over recent years.

All we know is what is in the media reports and what the Russian Foreign Ministry has published on its website. We know no more than that. We do not have a list of names. Some Ministers in the Government were listed on a press release but many others were not. We are certainly not going to overreact to this. I have no idea what the sanctions entail but am quite certain that nobody on the list, certainly those in the political world, has any assets in Russia, any bank accounts there or any reason to visit it any time soon. We would all love to visit Russia if it were to become a democratic state and if it were brought back into the normal democratic system of the world. That is not likely anytime soon. Therefore, we are not going to react to something on which, as yet, we have no information. We certainly believe we have taken a united approach to the Russian Federation and the brutal assault on Ukraine. All our democratic focus in this House should be on Russia, which is 100% responsible for what has happened. If there is anything to react to, I have no doubt the Government will make decisions, but at the moment it simply does not have the information to hand. I suspect we will have very little to do as a result of this decision by the Russian Federation.

See this speech in context