John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This week, I have focussed all of my comments on Ukraine. I have talked about how it should be granted immediate accession to the European Union, how we should ensure that if it wishes to join NATO it can do so, how Ireland's policy of neutrality is ridiculous and that we should be sending weapons to defend against the murder of women and children on the streets of the European Continent.

Today, I want to focus on another angle that is two-fold. I commend the Russian people who in their own country are standing up against President Putin. God knows how dangerous that is, not only for their livelihoods and safety, but their lives. It has been forgotten in this debate that this horrific war is not being carried out in the name of normal, decent Russian people who abhor this as much as we do. It takes real courage to protest against President Putin on Russian streets yet people are doing that. It is important to acknowledge that.

I want to focus on the sanctions that we are putting forward. We have to totally and utterly cripple the Russian economy. All bets have to be off the table. We have to cripple it. In crippling the Russian economy, we cripple President Putin's ability to wage a war of death upon the European Continent. How do we do that? We have to ensure that we move SWIFT to include all banks, including banks involved in energy. There can be no nitpicking among western European countries about what sanctions to impose and not impose because it might hurt our personal interests. We need total attrition in an economic sense.

Mairéad McGuinness, in her role as European Commissioner with responsibility for financial stability, is leading the charge for the European Union on this. She is the woman responsible for introducing these sanctions in Russia. It would be a very good idea if we wrote to Commissioner McGuinness to ask her to come before the Seanad at some point in the next few weeks - I know she is incredibly busy now - to outline the sanctions that have been imposed, how they can work and what sanctions can act as good deterrents for the future to make sure something like this does not happen again.