Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like the Cathaoirleach, I met the Estonian ambassador as she was leaving. I was in Estonia when it held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union a few years ago. I was struck by Estonians' fear of the regime next door and how vulnerable they felt. It was a kind of permanent cloud that at any time something could happen to them. I had not considered it before that, but I certainly came home from Estonia aware that they live in constant fear of something happening. Many of the former Soviet states, including Georgia and Ukraine, have a similar kind of foreboding that, at any point in time, something might happen. Funnily, I woke up at approximately 5 a.m. this morning and I did not know why. I looked at my phone and all of a sudden there was all this stuff happening on Twitter. People in hotel rooms in Ukraine were saying how the breakfast service had been cancelled and they were all being moved into air raid shelters or bomb shelters or whatever. I do not think many of us know an awful lot about Ukraine, historically. It is bigger than France in terms of geographic size. It has a population of 44 million and is rich in many natural resources, which may be another part of the reason Russia wants to do what it wants to do.

Ireland has more involvement than we may think. The single biggest operator of flights into and out of Ukraine last week, and almost every week, is Ryanair. It operates numerous flights from all over Europe into Ukraine and out again, far more than the Ukrainian national airline because it is far bigger. Ireland has a significant aviation leasing industry with Russian airlines. Maybe that should be considered in terms of sanctions. We are not going to be militarily involved in dealing with Russia but we have to exercise any and every power we have. We have a position on the UN Security Council at the moment that we do not have very often. Everything that can be done has to be done. Whatever about expelling the Russian ambassador and bringing another one in - if that needs to be done, it needs to be done - we definitely need to bring the ambassador in to talk to him. Only a week ago, he stated on "Prime Time" that Russia had no interest in going into Ukraine but now it is bombing civilian apartment blocks.

There is a group of Ukrainian nationals at the gates of Leinster House. I will go out to meet them and express my solidarity with them. I am sure many other Senators may wish to do likewise, now that they know they are there. I am going to go out to them, so I will watch the Leader's reply to Senators at a later stage. I want to express my solidarity with the people of Ukraine, as, I am sure, do all Senators. I ask not the Russian people, who, I am sure, are very honourable in may ways, but the Russian authorities to realise it is not too late to slow down and pull back. They may not think that way but we should all be saying they should pause and pull back because this is not okay. Nobody ever wins in a war.