Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As one of the two parties against the abolition of the Seanad, I am more than happy for Senator McDowell to bring up the matter of Seanad reform every day.I will certainly support him on it. We will do all that we can to make Seanad reform happen.

I welcome the Estonian ambassador to the Chamber. This should be a day of celebration for the people of Estonia, and it is, but I am very conscious the entire region is living in fear. We have already seen Lithuania looking to call a national state of emergency. What is happening in Ukraine is having a knock-on impact throughout the entire region. I think of all of those living in this country, citizens and not citizens, who have connections with the area and region who are very fearful. I am sure we have all seen the queues of people trying to get out of Ukraine at present. My heart goes out to them. I agree with all of the previous speakers that we have to have the strongest sanctions possible. I agree it will be difficult.

We have known for some time that this was coming. Despite what Mr. Putin said, we all knew it was lies and that nothing was happening or going to happen in subsequent days. We saw this today. It has been lie after lie and we should not expect any different. There has been a delay in action by the EU, the US and the UK. It is no longer acceptable. We have to see what we can do here. Certainly the Russian ambassador in this country has a lot to answer for. This is our closest link. We need to examine whether the ambassador continues to be welcome in this country. The ambassador of Estonia is very welcome. All of the links with diplomacy must mean something. There is no point in having people in our country unless it stands for something. Diplomacy has broken down as Senator Kyne has said. Was there even any effort by Russia? I do not believe there was. I had hoped to speak about a number of other issues but this is the most important issue facing us today and that is what the Order of Business is about.