Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)

I second the motion. I thank our leader, Senator O'Loughlin, and everybody involved in putting the motion together. On 26 February 2022, my father died, four days after the outbreak of the current part of this war because that was not the start of this war, as we have to acknowledge. It has been a lifetime for me since that personal loss on 26 February 2022. I can only imagine what it has been like for the people who suffer attack every day and every night, and have also lost loved ones. It is an eternity. It is no way for any human being to have to live.

I welcome the ambassador. In recent deliberations with the foreign affairs committee, she said that Russia is not winning and Ukraine is not losing. That is stalemate in anyone's language. I am concerned about the media commentary over recent days. On his way to play a major part in a resolution to the crisis in the Middle East, President Trump flippantly said that America might send Tomahawk missiles, to which the response was, "Well, we can respond with nuclear." That is the stalemate we have reached. That is why it is so important to get everybody around the table. Russia is refusing to engage in any meaningful peace process. The only way to get Russia to the table is through further sanctions. I know the coalition of the willing is playing a very big and important role in this, but it is not enough if it is not having results. In any walk of life people can do no more than try their best but if it does not achieve what they set out to achieve, it is ultimately a failure. We need to revisit the sanctions and get Putin to the table because it is at the table that this will eventually be resolved.

Drones and illegal aircraft are flying over European airspace. The EU was formed post the Second World War. This is as close as we have ever been to a similar crisis since that war ended in 1945. As people here know, I am a farmer. My input costs are affected because of the war. It is affecting us all. That seems totally insignificant when we are talking about lives but it is important.

I thank those who put this motion together. It is important to keep this issue to the fore. It is hard to say this correctly because all war is wrong and all life is important. A Ukrainian life is no more important than that of a Palestinian or an Israeli, but because of what was going on elsewhere, the Ukrainian situation was somewhat in the background in the media. It is very important that we highlight it and bring it to the fore again this evening. If we achieve nothing else by this motion, we need to get this issue back as the headline. That is what puts pressure on the ultimate powers that be - if it is on the front page, if it is the headline and if it is the first thing on the lips of every human being. That is what makes people act. We want to get that back to the forefront of conversation. We want to get everybody concerned around the table to thrash out and implement a ceasefire, with a workable peace process going forward from there.