Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join others in congratulating those who worked to achieve autism-friendly status for this building.

Today marks 700 days since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yesterday, 18 people were killed and more than 130 wounded as a result of Russian air strikes on Ukraine. It is essential that we continue to stand with the people of Ukraine as a country and in multilateral institutions. It is important that, even though there are conflicts in other parts of the world, we do not forget about this horrific conflict and Russia's barbaric actions. I ask that we have a debate on Ukraine and further actions that Ireland may be able to take.

Related to that, I am concerned about what I read today in my local newspapers in Wexford. I disagree with him on many issues but Aontú councillor Jim Codd, who is a very good secondary school teacher, has rightly expressed concern that refugee pupils no longer feel as safe as they once did here. This is a concern I have heard from other teachers but Councillor Codd is raising it and putting it on the public agenda. We have to be very conscious, in the debates we have in these Houses and in other public debates, that language matters. When children and young people hear some of the hateful rhetoric that is being used to describe refugees and asylum seekers, it impacts on them to a far greater extent than it does on others.In the context of any debates that happen in these Houses or in public, we need to remember that. I ask that in facilitating a debate around immigration, the question of language features as part of that.