Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Transport Eamon Ryan has said that Ireland needs to do more to assist Ukraine.
One of the best ways to do that would be to stop spending hundreds of millions on Russian gas and oil, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
Ireland will push for stronger sanctions “to put an end to the Putin regime” and one of the best ways to do that was to challenge the economic strength of Russia by stopping the sale of fuels like gas and oil.
But any such action would have to be part of a united, collective European response, he said. While Ireland had other resources, some countries, especially those in Eastern Europe would find it more difficult.
“We have opened our doors (to refugees) and more will be coming,” Mr Ryan said.
The immediate challenge was providing safe sanctuary for fleeing refugees and Ireland would be helping the countries which border Ukraine during this humanitarian crisis.
Freezing Russian assets was the right approach, he added. Ireland could not enforce a no-fly zone and the countries that could were concerned that it would escalate the situation, and they were not prepared to do that.
Mr Ryan said that he would be speaking with the ambassadors to Ukraine and Poland about the difficulties being experienced by refugees with higher Ryanair fares.
He said he had not been in touch with the airline as he wanted to speak to the ambassadors first. He and his department were “in constant touch” with Ryanair but had not yet communicated on this issue.
