Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a phrase used quite often in Ukrainian politics that states this is not how they normally do things. This is not how we normally do things and this is not how this normally comes about. I thank the Cathaoirleach for allowing it to happen. I thank Ms Bridget Doody, the Seanad team and Ms Sheila Ryan in protocol. How this came about was unusual and I acknowledge on the record what they have done to make it happen.

Ms Vasylenko spoke about genocide in her contribution.The definition of genocide is displacing of families. This is how we see it given what we have heard from eastern Ukraine about parents being murdered, children being taken away and brought to Russia, and their identity taken away.

Ms Lesia Vasylenko has touched on her own situation where on 1 March she had to make a decision to send her own three children to the UK, who are now being cared for by a UK MP. Lesia's youngest girl was nine months old and celebrated her first birthday on 1 June. That is a good story and a happy story because they are alive, they are being looked after and Lesia knows that they are well. No nine-month-old child should be displaced from his or her mother. That is the reality of the world they are living in. I look around this Chamber and I see our new friends who are living in Ireland. They are so welcome to our country, but we can see pain on their faces and we see the struggles they have gone through to get here. Lesia has her own story. Ms Alyona Shkrum has a story. Mr. Rostyslav Tistyk has a story. Mr. Dmytro Natalukha has a story. Every Ukrainian citizen who has come into this country has his or her own unique story, just like Lesia. We make decisions as a Parliament and it is amazing that this is the first time Ukrainian MPs have spoken to a parliament, anywhere in the world, in person. It is incredible that they are doing so in a Parliament where we as parliamentarians called out what Russia did as genocide. I acknowledge the Fianna Fáil Party and the Government in general for doing that.

The message here, and certainly the message that our friends from Ukraine want to get across, is an acknowledgement of what we have done and the recognition that it needs to continue. As parliamentarians, we need to reinforce why we are doing this. The messages of people's personal lives and what they are going through is nothing in comparison to the challenges we have, and we do have challenges.

With regard to Ireland's future and how we are viewed around the world - we are very lucky in how we are viewed around the world; people love us - the decisions we make today will reflect on the future of our children. We need to continue supporting Ukraine until this war is won. I ask that as parliamentarians we would continue to support Ukraine and continue to emphasise why it is we are supporting them and why it is we are putting money into it, while acknowledging all of the time the sacrifices people are making to make sure freedom comes to Ukraine. We should do that until the very end. Slava Ukraini.