Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to speak about Ukraine. I was really struck by the press release from the Auschwitz memorial at the weekend. It gave a great summary of what our disposition should be. It stated:

This act of barbarity will be judged by history, and its perpetrators, it is to be hoped, also by the International Court of Justice. As we stand at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, it is impossible to remain silent while, once again, innocent people are being killed purely because of insane pseudo-imperial megalomania. We express our absolute solidarity with the citizens and residents of free, independent, and sovereign Ukraine and with all Russians who have the courage to oppose this war. At this moment the free and democratic world must show, if it has learned its lessons from its passivity of 1930s. Today, it is clear that any symptom of indifference is a sign of complicity.

I am proud we have expressed ourselves as a nation in support of Ukraine. I am proud of all the actions the EU has taken and that they were taken quickly, and I expect them to be implemented quickly. What was the Russian response? It was to put its deterrent forces on special combat duty. Its response was to shoot a family trying to flee with its children to safety, to shoot dead a beautiful little girl, Polina, and her parents, to strike civilian buildings, to shoot other children and parents and to murder civilians. Its response is to send a military convoy of anything between 27 km and 60 km in length with a mission to murder other innocent families and innocent children.

There is no such thing as neutrality in the face of atrocity. We are not neutral on Ukraine. I am not neutral on Ukraine. Today, Polina is not in her fourth grade class because she has been murdered in the name of an evil lie and evil man supported by his lackeys. Today, Ukrainian children are not at school, in parks or in playgrounds. They are in underground car parks and in basements fearing for their lives. I have seen the photographs of people I can name and know, and know where they are right now. There is no neutrality in the face of such atrocities. Today, children with illnesses and in need of comfort and treatment in hospitals are in basements in the dark, in fear of being killed. They have been carried there by their terrified parents and are being cared for by staff in fear of their lives and those of their families. Today, there are vulnerable Irish citizens, our nation's babies, in Ukraine. We want them home. I find the calls to expel the Russian ambassador impotent and ill-informed, to be perfectly honest. It is not that I would not happily march the man to Dublin Airport myself but our diplomatic links, however distasteful, may be necessary. I do not want the ambassador to be expelled, but I want him to know that we are not neutral on human suffering. We are not neutral on Russia's atrocities. I am calling for a debate on our neutrality. Standing together in the EU may bring the support Ukraine needs. Standing together with the nations of the world that stand against these atrocities may well be the end that is stimulated by the Russian people, many of whom have expressed such courage in the last few days. Standing together, we say that there is no neutrality in the face of atrocity.