Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Before I call on the Minister of State, I also welcome the ambassador to the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. I thank her for taking the time to be here for this debate. I also thank her for facilitating my visit with the Ceann Comhairle to Kyiv a year and a half ago, along with Seán Kelly and Grace Coyle. We took an 11-hour train journey to the heart of the conflict to visit President Zelenskyy, who has a great knowledge of what Ireland was doing and could do. Speaker Stefanchuk is one of the greatest exponents of ripple diplomacy that I have ever encountered. Not only did he ask us for our support, but he recruited us to get support from other countries and to get the speakers of parliaments around the European Union to support Ukraine's application to the European Union, which we were happy to do. We were also taken to Bucha to see for ourselves the war crimes perpetrated by the Russian army. We heard about the resilience of the people and the soldiers in pushing back the attack when the Russians were on the steps of Kyiv. That resistance is ongoing.

It is hard to imagine that we are now two years into that conflict. The world is distracted by other conflicts. At this time, there are four times more conflicts going on in the world than there were 25 years ago. That does not mean that the independence of Ukraine and all its territories is not something we are deeply concerned about, as are many people around the world. I thank the ambassador for being here.