Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Last Friday evening, I was in the town of Ballgar, near to my home place, taking part in a table quiz in support of a journey that was going to be made from Ballygar to bring important food, medical and other supplies to Ukraine. The following evening, I was cycling through Ballygar on my bike. I had previously had an idea in my head that this was to be a fairly small van making its way across Europe but then I saw this massive truck with "Ballygar to Ukraine" and the Irish and Ukrainian flags emblazoned on it. It made me very proud that this small community, the parish of Ballygar, Newbridge and Tohergar, next door to my own, which has a relatively small number of people, was showing this fantastic generosity, organisational ability and solidarity with others far away. I give credit to Gearoid Kelly, whom I remember from my school days, and to G. Kelly Ballygar Transport. This did not start today nor yesterday. This outreach from that community has been going on for years in the context of various crises. It is the best of Ireland and it makes me especially proud to see small communities doing big things.

In light of our economic dependency on Russian gas and oil for energy - I am speaking about Europe, the West and countries like Germany in particular - and our economic dependency on China for so many things including money, finance, goods and services, it is time we thought about the impact of globalisation on our ability to stand up for human rights and to put up the strongest fight possible against any abuses of human rights. It is beyond doubt that our economic dependency on regimes that do not respect democracy, human rights and the rule of law is, on occasion, crippling our ability to take all of the measures we need to take when moral and political outrages such as we are seeing in Ukraine at the moment take place. Of course, there is great solidarity from the West. People are in lockstep and in agreement. However, we still wonder whether we are in a position to do everything we could do if we were not financially and economically entangled with countries that do not respect democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Our world, and the western world in particular, needs to think about how to get out of these entanglements so that we can defend the democratic order in the future.

What has been done and what is being done by the Russians in Ukraine is profoundly evil. Many adjectives have been used. The Russian invasion and prosecution of this war is medieval and shows an absolute disregard for human rights. It is scary and depressing to contemplate. It is very hard to see how one can have any kind of normal diplomatic relationships with a Russia under Putin in the future. It will not be for the people of this House to decide what happens in the future but we must insist on getting to a place where it is sought to prosecute, in every possible way, those who perpetrate human rights abuses, regardless of who or how powerful those perpetrators are.

As I have said, what the Russians have done is profoundly evil but, having said that, there is a difference between the information one gets from the mainstream media about this and the information one can find when one does a wider search on the issues. There is a debate to be had about the promises the West held out to Ukraine with regard to NATO membership and the way it undermined the democratically elected Yanukovych regime. The Russians are the cause of this evil and nothing can take away from that but it may well be the case that the West contributed massively to what happened through bad statecraft and excessive interference. As I have said here in the past, we want to get to a situation where Ukraine can be independent, neutral and prosperous. I hope that will be possible.

I will mention two things in conclusion. The first is that we need to have a discussion about our neutrality and what it means. I support our neutrality but we have to contribute to the defence of our way of life and we have to think about what that means in these weeks and months and in the time ahead in light of what has happened. Two weeks ago, I raised the plight of Ukrainian women who have acted as surrogates for Irish couples. Senator Moynihan also raised the issue. I think of those women, who are the mothers of Irish citizens, and the moral duty we owe to them. I have raised the possibility of considering how we might develop legal rights in Ireland for women who have given birth to Irish citizens. In particular, we need to consider and have a debate about giving them options in terms of residency rights, basic social protection assistance, healthcare and, perhaps, a route to Irish citizenship. That is one of many issues we have to think about these days. It is the beginning of the discussion. I raise that issue with the Minister of State today and I would be interested in hearing what the Government thinks in due course.