Mattie McGrath Urges More Support for Ukraine and Stronger Sanctions

I want to, first of all, my wake is a call with President Galinsky, and a few of all for an open modern, and especially the diplomatic corps, but especially Ambassador Doresco, who was in the audience and who paid a visit to my county last week, and met the refugees who came only the day before to Cardeniski. I want to thank the Irish people, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the rural independent group, for opening their hats, their homes, in the spirit of the middle, in that as they always have done, any time they have a need and ask, and indeed, every right-thinking person is praying to the man above, Almighty God, His Blessed Mother, to end this horrible, horrific war. It is an appalling vista, and what we have seen in recent days, even makes it more appalling and more shuddering to imagine. But the Irish people have stood neutral, and I think neutral, militarily neutral, and we have, as a good state, we have said peacekeeping soldiers all over the world, with the blue helmets, with the blue helmets, as it has been referred to, and we are recognised for that all over the world, and we can play a huge part, and a very important part, in that role, as well, I think, at this point in time. And I listened with interest to President Galinsky, and his appeal for more support, and we can give more support, and we must give more support, because as I said, the people are doing it, and we as politicians must do it, and we must all put our shoulders to the wheel, but diplomatic pressure must be applied, more sanctions must be applied, and try and hit the Russian oligarchs, and turn off the money machine to dim. Because I believe there is double speak going on all over the place, and there are a lot of conflicts that we have chosen to ignore, and are ongoing as well. I am not going to get into that today, it is the Ukrainian day, and very, very, very important that it would be. I met a bunch of very heartbroken people, at least even Stephens Green, who gave me this little ribbon, and asked me to wear it today, and that's why I am wearing it, because they were there, praying for the family members that they had lost, and the torture that they went through. It is just unbelievable, that in this modern era, that we would have this vista of this bloody war, so we must do everything we can, in our own special way, here in Ireland. And remember, people like Breen and Tracy, and indeed Liam Lynch, who lost his life 99 years this weekend. I hand over to Deputy Haley Murray.