Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He met with President Zelenskyy and with the Prime Minister. There is a worrying trend within the European Union in the conversation of where the war is going in Ukraine by putting pressure on Ukraine to negotiate with Putin. The Cathaoirleach was there last week. He knows that Ukraine is winning this war. Russia is retreating. Now is not the time to be asking Ukraine to negotiate with an army and country that are losing. Ukraine will win this war.

We have seen even this morning other atrocities in Mariupol, where another mass grave of 200 bodies was found when Ukrainian forces got in there to see these atrocities. However, Ukraine will win this war if we give it the support it needs, whether that is with weapons or with finances to support it to pay its army, doctors and nurses. The will and the resilience of those people is phenomenal, and they will win. It is not the time for us to be saying that they should start talking to Putin.

I understand from a European perspective and from an Irish perspective that this war has an effect on our economy, on the cost of living and on prices going up. However, there is a greater good in giving freedom to people who deserve it and who want to join the European Union.

There is another element that we can play in our role as members of the European Union. A number of neighbouring states of Ukraine, such as Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, have called what Russia has done as genocide. However, no western European country has done that yet. The Cathaoirleach has seen what has happened over there. What has happened there and what Russia has done is genocide. Even the conversations that Putin has had can be called genocide. When one kills mothers and fathers, takes children away into Russia, gives them documentation and passports and tells them they are Russian for the rest of their lives, that is nothing more than genocide. It is taking away a generation. The narrative needs to continue, which it has for three months, in support of Ukraine to win this war. This should not be a time, when they are actually winning to say, "Let us end it".