Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Today marks independence day for Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the reprehensible ethnic cleansing of the 1990s, Professor Brendan Simms described Ireland's performance and response at that time as squalid. Our reasoning for doing little or nothing was we would not be seen to level the killing fields. Doing little or nothing was justified by a predecessor of the Minister's in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Thus, the Bosnians were isolated. They had to defend themselves and their country. That conflict in the 1990s should have taught us the massive price of prevarication, inactivity and doing too little too late. Defending democracy is not for free. As the armoured tanks edge closer to Kyiv this evening, the EU must respond as best we can as a united community, unlike at the time of the horrors in Sarajevo. We must not be found wanting again. Let us support the cripplingly deep sanctions and be honest with people that they will cost us, but at least it will not cost the lives of men, women and children.

We must stop our dependence on fossil fuels. We must become energy secure. For the past century we have seen greed-driven wars being raged over the control of fossil fuels with innocent victims suffering by being deprived of fossil fuels as a result of war. Renewables are a force of peace. Spending money on fossil fuels destroys our world, including biodiversity. Spending money on Russian fossil fuels is akin to contributing money to buying Russian tanks.

The strength of our language in condemning the atrocious barbaric acts of Russia must be acknowledged and never taken for granted or belittled. However, words are not enough. In a biblical phrase, words satisfy the soul as food satisfies the stomach. However, it is not satisfaction that people want and it is not words. Actions speak louder than words. I take some solace from the EU acting together. There must be a day of reckoning for dictators such as Lukashenko and Putin. They must be held accountable and hunted down. Ukraine applied to the International Criminal Court to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine. On 28 February, the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, decided to open an investigation. People should face all the rigours of the law and be held to account. We must go further.

I am heartened by the contributions tonight and how we have made the differentiation that this is not the war of the decent Russian and Belarusian people. The Russian people in Ireland that I know are mortified, hurt, upset and embarrassed by the actions of a dictator. In the meantime, what is the reality? If the politburo does not remove Putin, we must do our best to call on the Russian people to put their lives in harm's way with a mass mobilisation of people. If that does not happen, we need to look at humanitarian aid like never before.

Before the invasion, I mentioned in the Chamber my concerns that Ireland was not supporting Ukraine in seeking EU membership. I brought that up informally with Department of Foreign Affairs officials. I still have not got an answer. It took an invasion for us to move on that. It did not take an invasion for Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Poland, Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania soon to join them. That is called practical solidarity. Why was Ireland not one of those signatories in the declaration of the perspective to support Ukraine. The Ukrainians really wanted support. I have spoken to the Ukrainian ambassador on a number of occasions. That would have been practical support. Why did it not happen sooner? We are not on our own and other big states are conspicuous by their absence. People feel it is because certain member states feared provoking the lovely President Putin. We must do more. I commend Poland. The EU should not face paralysis by always having to act together. One country can go ahead and still be in unison. Poland did not wait for FIFA or UEFA to say it would not play that team. Pope Francis and the Holy See took an amazing position by expressing concern over the war in Ukraine. It was an extraordinary papal gesture that has no recent precedent.

I am sure the Cathaoirleach will agree with me that RTÉ's Tony Connelly, Bram Verbeke and now Paul Cunningham and Owen Corcoran are putting themselves in harm's way to let us know what is happening in those countries. They deserve enormous thanks on behalf of the Irish people, as does President Zelenskiy, who is a modern-day Lech Walesa bringing his people together. We stand with him shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity.