Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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I reiterate what the Cathaoirleach said about how supportive we are of the witnesses' work and how supportive we are of deepening relationships with these other small islands. We are a small island and a very prosperous one. We still have a history and a memory of colonialism, famine, displacement and poverty. It is to be hoped we can bring that to the witnesses' work in SIDS.

We have just had one storm and we are going into another now, Storm Jocelyn. I do not think it is going to be as bad as the last one, but we certainly are facing extreme weather events. I was on the climate committee prior to coming to this committee, so I am well aware of the issues. Regarding loss and damage, it was great to see the positive role Ireland played at COP28. I often say that the underdeveloped nations should not be asking us for money. They should perhaps be supplying the developed world with invoices because so much of our wealth was generated from their losses.

Many of our plans revolve around where we are going to be in eight or ten years in the context of our action programme for 2024 to 2034. In some ways, where we thought we were going to be in ten years, we could be in three or four years.

While we in Ireland are not facing catastrophic flooding, drought or famine due to crop failure at the moment, are we nimble and dynamic enough to adapt? We could be facing that. Climate change is coming at us a lot faster than we thought. Will Mr. Gaffey comment on that?