Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

If we are going to have a debate on neutrality, we should probably have a discussion on why we are having that debate in the first instance. Approximately 14 months ago Russia invaded Ukraine and within a few weeks, we saw the brutality of that invasion when the Russians were pushed back out of Bucha. The Ceann Comhairle was there. He saw the mass graves and the bodies in the streets. Since then, we have seen more and more atrocities of that nature. While it was not very prominent in reporting over here, in the past few weeks we have seen the absolutely grotesque and brutal torture and murder of innocent Ukrainian people. There was a live recording of the beheading of a captured soldier and we know that was one of a number of instances of this kind of war crime that has happened in Ukraine. Testimony has surfaced in the past few days of the murder of children at point blank range. A five-year-old girl was shot in the head in the past few weeks. There are reports that 300 or 400 civilians were locked into a basement in Bucha and murdered. Most of them were women, children and pensioners. The order from the very top, if we are to believe this testimony, is that nobody over the age of 15 should be spared, although the Russians are not sparing anybody under the age of 15 either, as it happens.

We have a duty to respond to the brutality that is happening on our Continent. We are in the very same moral position that we were in before the Second World War and we have to respond accordingly. As more and more territory is won back from Russia, we are going to find more and more atrocities caused by the invading Russian army. We are going to find more and more dead bodies and mass graves of innocent people who have been murdered. I agree with Deputy Paul Murphy that hundreds of thousands have died. It is absolutely unnecessary that they have died but I would go further and say that we have a duty to ensure that the death and destruction is not greater.

I support the EU's response to the invasion of Ukraine. It is an appropriate response because this is a 1938 moment. There is a duty on us as a union to address this horrendous invasion of a sovereign nation that is just over the EU border. It behoves us to answer questions in this country about our own position. Can we support the EU's military response? Many countries of the EU are taking a very strong stance against the war in Ukraine. Of course, as a country, we have to ask ourselves what part we should play. Do we continue to be the trusted third-party arbiter, which we have done very well over the decades? We cannot be neutral in the face of the atrocities that are happening in Ukraine. We have to figure out how we respond. We need to have a genuine and authentic debate. I disagree with Deputy Murphy on many issues and on this one in particular but the debate is welcome. We must address this. I think the Irish people do not want to be neutral. I do not know what the difference is between being politically neutral or militarily neutral in any case. It is right that we responding in the way we are. As a union, it is right that we stand up to Russian tyranny because if we do not do so and merely condemn the tyranny in Ukraine, then we are going to see Ukraine overrun, followed by Moldova, Georgia, Poland and then the Baltic countries. That is the reality of it and I do not believe anybody in this House wants that to happen.

The European Council meeting in February dealt with human trafficking and I want to address that issue in the few minutes remaining. Trafficking is a feature of the sex trade. We do not know for sure because the details are not all out there yet but it is reported that Ms Geila Ibram worked as a sex worker in Limerick. We do not know if she was trafficked to Limerick but we know she had arrived there just a few weeks ago. We also know that she was murdered. It is not acceptable in any society that a woman, who is a new arrival into the country, would be murdered in such a brutal fashion as Ms Ibram was just a few weeks ago. It has ignited a debate on the 2017 legislation enacted in this House relating to sex work. The Sex Workers Alliance came out very quickly after the murder of Geila Ibram and said that the 2017 legislation drove sex work underground and made it less safe for those who are engaged in it. The alliance directly attributed Ms Ibram's murder to that legislation. The counter view is that the trade is inherently dangerous and the appropriate response is to seek to eradicate it while doing everything we can to protect those who find themselves engaged in it, many of whom have been trafficked from countries such as Romania and Moldova.

The Minister of State will agree with me that the debate continues but the murder of Geila Ibram puts a responsibility on us to look again at that 2017 legislation. A review was promised in 2020 but that has not happened yet. I urge the Minister of State to discuss with his colleagues, particularly the Minister for Justice, Deputy Harris, the overdue review of the legislation. I do not come down on any one side of that debate but I have read research around it. Peer-reviewed research shows that there has been an increase in violence against people involved in the sex trade in this country since the legislation was brought in. The research does not say there is necessarily a causation - it may simply be a correlation - but the increase in violence has happened coincident with the legislation being enacted by these Houses back in 2017. The review is critical and I will speak with the Minister for Justice about it. If we want to reduce violence in the sex trade, we have to be open to reviewing the legislation that is in place. When we hear from those that are involved in the sex trade that the legislation is leading to increased violence, we should listen carefully. We should put aside any misgivings we might have about the particular trade, do the right thing and seek to legislate so that those involved in it are protected as much as possible.

See this speech in context