Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have all had emails this morning about protests this afternoon and there is an unprecedented number of emails regarding Gaza, There is no question that the savagery on all sides there has been horrific since 7 October. I want to raise the point that, throughout this, when I go through the newspapers, I notice every day where Ukraine appears in the newspapers. It is falling further and further back in the headlines and it has certainly been way off the front pages for quite some time. It is appalling that, right now, on a daily basis, there are killings in Ukraine and people dying in Ukraine, there are increased missile attacks and, in the background, the people of Ukraine are still suffering and facing into a winter where Russia has already started to target their infrastructure.

I had a conversation with the Ukrainian ambassador yesterday in this regard. In all of this, when we talk about Gaza, we talk about the Israeli ambassador and we have spoken in the past about the Russian ambassador. What are we saying about the Iranian ambassador? What are we saying about those who pull the strings in the background, who supply equipment, arsenals and all of the rest in all of these wars and to all of these protagonists? We are saying nothing about the Iranian ambassador. The fact is it should equally apply to the Iranian ambassador and we should have calls on the credentials there and the veracity. It is not that long ago since we got a complete and utter piece of propaganda sent to all of us from the ambassador, telling us a different version of events - their version of events - when it came to the killing of a woman.

I mention that and wish to say that we still stand with Ukraine and that we still remember Ukraine. There is a narrative creeping in, and I heard it in this House even yesterday, of it almost being an irritant, rather than the fact that people are suffering in the name of democracy and holding the bastion of democracy on behalf of all of us against a Russian aggressor that thinks it is all right to completely set aside a nation-state and the boundaries of a nation-state. I want to bring that to the attention of the House and to make sure we remember that, although that is not to diminish in any way the horror that is going on in Gaza and the children who are dying every day there and how awful that is. However, we need to remember, because they are being lost in the news cycle, that, as a Parliament, we still stand with Ukraine.