Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. It is very important that they are here to provide the testimony of their own people on the floor of the Seanad. What better way to show that we are all in this together than to watch parliamentarians from our two nations here on the floor of the Seanad. From the bottom of my heart, I thank all four members of the delegation for putting on the record of this House their testimony regarding the atrocities against their people. We have heard first-hand testimony of what is happening to their friends and families as a result of this illegal invasion. Let us not minimise that, because it is really important. It is not something that any of us could do because it is not our families. However, we are deeply impacted by that as are all Irish people. It is really uncomfortable for us to hear stories of rape, murder and illegal extraction of children, but it is the only way to get to the bottom of it and to ensure we take the steps necessary.

I had the honour of speaking to the four members of the delegation earlier. I thank Senators Ward and Ahearn for facilitating this trip for them. I also thank the Senators for travelling to Ukraine. Having spoken to both groups, I have no doubt about the importance of the Senators going to Ukraine and of our guests coming here. This is a really important thing to do because let us not forget that they will go to the UK tomorrow. They will spread the word of what is happening in Ireland and what Ireland is doing right, and then bring that to other nations in order that they can be shamed and that we can also hear stories of what others are doing and step up to the mark. We should not underestimate the importance of diplomacy. There may be a complete failure of diplomacy when it comes to Russia but let us make sure that diplomacy works when it comes to Europe so that we can really tackle this.

Sanctions have been imposed repeatedly by the European Union. We need to see action in respect of all those sanctions at this stage. Words are not good enough. Let us make no mistake about it, those sanctions are incredibly painful for the people of Ireland and throughout the world. However, they are the only way to stop what is going on. As many of the delegation have said, the protracted aggression against Ukraine is much more painful. It means that death will continue and it means low-level pain for us as well.

We tend to talk about the difficulties and atrocities as we should. However, it is also important to speak about what Ukrainian people have given to us in Ireland and the benefits that the 35,000 people who have come to our country have provided for us in terms of a feeling of solidarity and the joy that I know my children have when they meet Ukrainians in their schools. There is a shared sense of humanity and what it really means to care for other people who are not part of our families and who, perhaps, were not part of our communities a month ago but who now are.I have seen some of the photographs the Ukrainian Members of Parliament have shown me of artwork done by Irish children and I have artwork done by my own children. That love and connection among children is what it is all about. That is why I am so deeply impacted by the stories they have to share about the impact of the conflict on children still living in Ukraine and those who are being moved to Russia. Let us not forget there is a deep long-lasting impact on Ukrainian children who come to Ireland. We have done a good job but there is a lot more work to do. That work must extend beyond the Department of the Minister, Deputy O’Gorman, which is where much of the work had been done up to now. It must move across all the Departments in terms of housing and education because some Ukrainian people will stay here and we are more than happy for them to stay here if that is what they want to do. We must also ensure we have long-term supports in place.

Regarding the requests of the Ukrainian Members of Parliament, in particular Ukraine's application for membership of the European Union, we stand with them on that, of that there is no doubt. With regard to their request for recognition of genocide, as they have already seen, we stand with them on that. With regard to their request for Russia to pay, we absolutely stand with them on that and I believe I speak for people across the country when I say that. I thank them again from the bottom of my heart for coming here and sharing with us and for leaving their families to do that. I thank the Senators for facilitating that.