Ms Mary Van Lieshout:

I will divide that question into a number of sections, consider different ways in which we can act and pick up on some of the other issues that have been raised.

One of the issues that has arisen relates to climate finance. Dóchas has welcomed the Taoiseach's commitment to providing an extra €225 million in climate financing by 2025. We agree with the Deputy that this amount needs to be in addition to existing ODA commitments. We have discussed a separate finance stream for loss and damage to be committed at COP27 in support of low-income countries. A number of the points that the Deputy has raised are points for which Dóchas is advocating, so Ireland will be showing real leadership at COP27.

It is interesting to have Ms Sidi here from Niger. One of the unsung successes of Ireland's term at the UN Security Council, where we have a further six months, was the Irish and Nigerian resolution on the connection between climate and conflict. We came very close to winning that resolution, through which there would have been overall understanding across the General Assembly of the connection between climate and conflict and its impact on hunger. The resolution did not go through because of petty politics at the Security Council, but that does not mean that that time was wasted. Ireland, along with Niger, can stand proud for building that consensus behind the scenes and for nearly getting a new resolution on the issue. This kind of leadership from our time on the council is very important. Ireland needs to continue speaking to UN Security Council Resolution 2417 on climate and security. When we depart the Security Council, we do not depart leadership at the UN. We can leverage that time, just as other former members of the Security Council did with Ireland, sharing their knowledge and experience of the difficult issues and how to bring them a step closer to success. There is much more that can be achieved on the foot of these two years at the Security Council. I just do not want people to see our departure as an end. It is only the beginning of taking advantage of consensus building, which is important in our multilateral relationships.

My final comment is on the questions relating to Covid and vaccine equity. We are aware that the committee has supported vaccine equity. Dóchas has called for vaccine equity since the beginning of the pandemic. We are well aware that vaccination and booster rates in the global south are far behind the global north's. The longer it takes vaccines to reach the global south, the longer we will have new variants emerging and vaccine hesitancy, fuelled by misinformation, taking a deeper hold. Vaccine equity cannot be more urgent than it is. Despite this, the discussions at the World Trade Organization that concluded this week did not go far enough. We need to see the transfer of technology to the global south. We need to see much more courage being shown in answering the call from the public, this committee and the Seanad on supporting vaccine equity. This pandemic will not go away until we are all safe. None of us is safe until we are all safe.

I hope that I have answered at least three parts of the many questions that were asked.