John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. As he is aware there have been a number of incidents between Greek and Turkish naval vessels and aircraft in the coastal area surrounding the island of Cyprus. The cause of this tension lies in the discovery of a major gas field in the region, estimated to be 3.5 trillion cu. m. That is enough to keep the whole of the United States supplied for up to a decade. Of course the EU's interest in the area lies with the potential of the gas find to ease European energy dependency on Russia. As the Minister said, it is important to stand in solidarity with Greece and Cyprus but it is more important to put substantive actions in place to stand with them. What we are seeing is Turkey, which has illegally occupied the north part of Cyprus since 1974, appearing to want to try to assert itself as a major regional player. As such, we now need substantive actions from the Irish Government and the EU so will the Minister outline some of the actions he alluded to at the end of his initial reply?

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