Vice Chairman:

I thank all of our guests for their presentations. Deputy Stanton brought us back to Mary Robinson's visit to the region in the early 1990s and the huge impact that famine had, not only here but it also had a chilling effect across the world. Thankfully it led to greater help and assistance being afforded. When we consider the difficulties we as a nation have had in recent years in responding to and rebounding from Covid as a people, as a country and as an economy. When we think of the mitigating measures we had to take in the recent budget in order to respond to the issues arising out of supply chains being affected by Covid and by the war in Ukraine, and the impact this is having on the cost of living and when we consider that we can do that to the tune of €11 billion and not borrow a cent to do so, we realise that as badly off as we think we are, how very much well-off we are when compared with the terrible difficulties and tragedies experienced by the people to whom our guests refer.

As a committee comprising members from all parties and none and representative of the people who give us the privilege of being here as Members of the Houses, we have a duty. Our guests are right to say that we have an obligation to impress upon Government to acknowledge the commitment it has made, to acknowledge the increases there have been, and to acknowledge - following the visit on behalf of the Government by the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy - the announcement of an immediate €30 million put aside for that region. We must also acknowledge, with regard to climate financing and the €95 million against €225 million, that this compares far more advantageously than the 25% across the international community. That is not to say that when one makes a commitment one should not stand by it: one should not make commitments unless one has the capacity to do so. Our job will be to impress upon Government the need to be expedient in relation to the commitment it has made as a Government: to use its influence in the fora to which it is party, both within the EU, within the UN and within the Security Council and to ensure that our Government's representation at COP27 has at the top of its agenda issues relating to climate finance and loss and damage, as you have alluded to. We will do our utmost to do that expediently ourselves, and to immediately contact Government to relay the shock and horror that is obvious in the voices of the responses and sentiment of those members that are here, in the hope that our people as a whole recognise that no matter how difficult things may seem, it is a far cry from the presentations that have been given to us on behalf of those you wish to support here today. I thank all of the witnesses again for their honesty, their brevity and the detail relating to difficult news that they had to convey. We will ensure that we will live up to the responsibilities that have been charged to us in relation to our commitments.