Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. His handling of this situation is exactly how the Irish people would want it to be done on all fronts. There are three words that come to mind as I think about this - medieval, barbaric and tsarist. We are back to the worst of tsarist Russia. Innocence is suffering. I saw a news headline on my phone that stated 350 civilians have died in Ukraine, including 14 children. The 64 km long convoy of tanks approaching Kyiv this morning was quite shocking. The suggestion that the people of Kyiv should flee their city is awful.

We should salute the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people and, indeed, we should salute the peace movement in Russian and those soldiers who are reluctant to kill their own kith and kin, which effectively is what the Ukrainian people are. Without being flippant or trivial in comparison, it is the equivalent of the Irish Army being asked to go to one of our islands and attack the people on it. These are their own people and it is a shocking state of affairs. I agree with the Minister in that it is very important the message goes out to Russian people. I know some of them, as we all do, who are living here and they are in no way implicated in this in our eyes.

The cluster munitions, the missile strikes, the suggestion of nuclear war and the intensified bombardment with rockets descending on Kharkiv are a horror. That begs the question of what we do. First, we work in solidarity with the EU in regard to all sanctions as outlined earlier. It is very important that we in Ireland miss no oligarchs in the process, and that we are seen to do our bit and do it well. It is very important that we receive the refugees heartily and properly. It is important that we support the moves to bring Ukraine into the EU, and I would also suggest Georgia, because the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are in the EU, but Georgia is exposed. Some 22% of Georgia is occupied by the Russians at present and the Georgians are vulnerable people. Although a Georgian application to join the EU has not been lodged yet, we should support it when it is. We should support the candidacy of Ukraine as well. Any signal such as that, which supports the people in their hour of great need, is something we should give.

Sanctions will hurt our people, but we have to be prepared for that. We cannot expect an abstract concept of sanctions and yet be in favour of sanctions. When they hurt our pockets and our incomes, as inevitably they must if they are properly done, we will have to measure up to and accept that. Equally, if it puts pressure on our villages and towns to receive refugees from Ukraine, we will have to accept that. There is no room for an ambiguous approach. We are either committed to international law, proper practices and a peaceful outcome or we are not. The way in which we can do that is support the sanctions unambiguously and when the sanctions hurt us to accept that it is an inevitability, unless they are ineffectual. We must also be ready to embrace the refugees. We cannot have meetings about Ukrainian refugees such as the despicable meetings that took place in this country when refugees came to towns. Towns, villages and communities across the country will have to be willing to make that effort. We are very fortunate people in that this is the only contact we will have with the war. Our troubles in that regard fade into insignificance compared to those of the people huddled in basements across Kyiv and Kharkiv. People are suffering, including the refugees on the Polish border. We are very removed from it here and if there is any way for us to do something about it, we should.

It is important that this debate takes place. It is also important that we pass an unambiguous and unanimous motion in this Chamber, and in the Dáil. In a bicameral Parliament, it is crucial that this be the case.It is also crucial that speech after speech we are unambiguous in our willingness to accept refugees, and suffer the consequences of the sanctions and really implement them.