Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

The detail of the matters Deputy Healy-Rae brought up are under the Department of justice. There was a discussion on Ukraine at the European Council where President Zelenskyy spoke. European leaders spoke pretty directly to him as well. The war against Ukraine is costing us all a lot of money. We need it to end for our financial and economic security, as well as our own security in general. We want that war to end. The EU must continue to put as much leverage - I again use that word "leverage" - on Russia. There were serious efforts at and around the European Council to put huge pressure on Russia to end this and that work continues. The war is costing Ukrainians their lives and homes. The destruction there is absolutely unbelievable. There are quite a number of Members who have visited Ukraine. I have visited myself. It is absolutely frightening. I would like to think that if it happened to us, we would have the same help from other member states. That is what solidarity is about. It was necessary to do that at the time. We want this to end because it is costing a lot of money. There is no question about that. Let us end it and save lives.

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