H.E. Dr. Lahcen Mahraoui:

I thank the Deputy, who I met previously when the genocide in Gaza started. I thank him for what he has done and what his party is doing. I am also grateful for what the Government of Ireland is doing. We appreciate what Ireland is doing in helping the Palestinian people and in Gaza in particular.

I will start by answering the Deputy's last question about business and what we can do between our two countries. Morocco is the nearest country to Europe. It is a stable country that is doing well in business. For me, business and trade are the backbone of any relationship.

I have long advocated that between Ireland and Morocco we will have a lot of things to do and we must seize all opportunities. One specific area is that post-Brexit, it is very important to develop a shipping line between Cork and Tangier to open the Moroccan market of around 40 million people to the Irish market. Because Morocco is a gate to Africa, this would also give the opportunity to Irish businesses, farmers and so on to be present. Morocco has free trade with the USA. It is the only country that has free trade with the USA and Europe in Africa and the Arab world. It has also free trade with different countries in the Mediterranean. We are granted advanced status with Europe.

With Morocco there is an opportunity to do business in different sectors. We are doing well in industry. We are producing around 700,000 cars per year now. We are targeting around 1 million by next year. We are doing well in green energies. That is another field in which we can co-operate and exchange our experiences. We are doing well in aeronautics. 70% of Airbus is done in Morocco right now, and we have seen outsourcing for many countries moving to Morocco. In green energy, we have the biggest solar farm in the world in Ouarzazate in Morocco.

I will move on to the second question about agriculture. We are producing a lot of fertilisers and now we are targeting Africa in our production. We have two big factories, one in Nigeria and another in Ethiopia, and we are in talks with Kenya. We are producing fertilisers adapted to the soil of each country, to maintain food security. We are also involved in a big project from Nigeria to Morocco, a pipeline of gas across 13 African countries. Each country will also develop access to energy from that project. We are thinking about Africa and trying to integrate and to help. We are looking for Ireland to be a member of this tripartite partnership in which we can also gather our energies and move on.