Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo Senator O'Loughlin's expression of sympathies to the family of Declan O'Connell. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. It is another loss for all the Defence Forces' community. I was so sorry to hear about this.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business that No. 130(9) be taken before No. 1 without debate. This is Senator Keogan's motion on Iran and the repressive measures being taken in that country.

In the House today, I wish to raise the issue of the appalling set of circumstances in Ukraine now. We quite rightly are outraged at the deaths of more than 22,000 people in the earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye and we are all mobilised by that event. In this last week, however, starting on Monday 6 February, the Russian winter-spring offensive has begun. In the area of Bakhmut, 1,034 Russian soldiers were killed in one day. We do not know what the corresponding figures are for Ukrainian troops, but I imagine they are broadly similar. Independent eyewitnesses, reporters and intelligence sources are saying that in the last week an average of 850 troops have been killed on the Russian side every day.

From this, we can infer that more than 1,000 young men, and in some cases boys, are being slaughtered in Ukraine. I wish to echo what I said in the address to the President of the European Parliament, Ms Roberta Metsola. We must invest our energies in bringing this absolute catastrophe to a halt. It is not enough to send weapons, and Ukraine absolutely has the right to defend itself. We must make strenuous efforts to bring this conflict and killing to an end because it is completely and utterly pointless and futile. If we are prepared to deal with Assad to bring relief to Syria, surely we can talk to Putin and his cronies to try to bring some sense to this situation.In our discourse, there is increasingly an attempt to frame our membership of the European Union in the context of the war in Ukraine and to get rid of our neutral status. During the late 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s, armed Russian and Soviet troops were all over Europe and missiles were pointed at every capital city on the continent, yet we did not frame our neutrality against that background. We have a unique voice. I would like the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence, Deputy Micheál Martin, to come to the House. He did great work in brokering an international ban on cluster munitions in Croke Park. We must consider how Ireland can invest its energies in being a unique voice to bring an end to the awful conflict in Ukraine.