Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the ambassador and thank him for his presentation. It is good to hear that talks are going on. That must be seen as a positive thing. I do not have many questions because the ambassador covered many of the things in which I was interested. I was particularly interested in the problem presented by membership of the European Union. I was interested to see that one of the stipulations is that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. That has a familiar ring to us in view of our peace settlement, but it is absolutely essential because there will have to be very difficult compromises by both sides.

I have a friend who is a politician in Cyprus and I know how emotional she is on the issue of the island and what she sees as its occupation. One of the emotions she has expressed strongly is the sense of abandonment by the EU of Greek Cyprus. We have allowed the occupation of the island to continue. To what extent is that a widespread view? Is it resentment of the EU? Has it changed since the bail-in? I was in Greece recently and although they are reporting that they are doing well and hope to exit their own bailout programme shortly, nevertheless a quarter of a million depend every day for food on charities such as the churches. Is that the scenario in Cyprus as well? Is it happening in another EU country that so many people are dependent on charity?