I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is commendable that he has done so. We are at a difficult period in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war on Ukraine. It is a good idea. I defer to the Ceann Comhairle but I heard President Zelenskyy last Saturday at the Munich Security Conference. He was appreciative of the supports he has gotten across Europe and elsewhere but spelled out to us, as did foreign minister Kuleba at the Foreign Affairs Council, the huge challenges facing Ukraine. There is an offensive on five fronts by Russia. On the number of people that Russia is putting into the war, it is estimated that for every one Ukrainian killed, seven Russian soldiers are killed. Avdiivka was savage in terms of the number of young people who lost their lives. This is a terrible war. We all get war-weary and tend to take our eye off it and wonder if the war will ever end. We took in many Ukrainians which will stand to us in the fullness of time. I understand people are under pressure as a result of that but we did it at the time because we saw the scenes in train stations with people getting on the trains and saying goodbye to their loved ones. My worry is that after the fall of Avdiivka, Ukraine is short of weapons to defend itself. There could be a worsening of the situation in the short term in terms of the fortunes of Ukraine. We have to do everything we possibly can. At EU level, Ireland has pushed hard for the passage of the fifth EPF package, which has been held up. We hope it will be cleared by early March. We facilitated a €50 million macroeconomic support. Accession to the European Union is the other key agenda item which we are pushing strongly.

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