Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues, I wish everybody a very happy International Women's Day.

I too will raise issues around the crisis in Ukraine. One thing we have seen in recent weeks is the great community spirit on the part of citizens and residents throughout the country who are volunteering to help out. We need to recognise their contribution. It is astounding to see those who are looking to help registering with the Red Cross. I also suggest we look at those who have holiday homes throughout the country. Such homes may be made available for the six- to 12-month period when we will need to house some of those who will come here.A considerable number will come. If we see up to 100,000 refugees, we have to welcome them. If those holiday homes can be made available, that would certainly help.

I welcome the fact that the Government has made its message on St. Patrick's Day very clear. Messages around Ukraine will be to the centre of it and no representative of either Russia or Belarus will be officially invited to any St. Patrick's Day event. We need, as colleagues have said, to show solidarity with our EU neighbours. Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have shown extraordinary generosity, as indeed has Moldova. We need to express our solidarity with those countries and provide them with the necessary support.

Schuman, one of the founders of the European Union as it is now, when he started speaking about the future of Europe, said that much of Europe would be forged out of crisis. We have gone from Brexit, through Covid, to the current crisis in Ukraine. I ask for a debate around the future of Europe. We need to see closer co-operation. Its merits are very plain to see now in terms of how we addressed all those crises, especially the current crisis.

It would be appropriate, at some stage, to invite President Zelenskiy to address this House or to address both the Dáil and the Seanad. He has shown wonderful leadership over the past period. Extending that invitation as a sign of the solidarity of the people of Ireland with the people of Ukraine would be welcome.