Joe O'Toole (Independent)

On behalf of the Independent group, I welcome the ambassador, Mr. Bruton, and thank him for his wide-ranging speech which covered many areas. On a personal level, I thank him for focusing on the issue of global warming and the Kyoto Agreement. I have been struggling for the past two years in this House to get people to respond with some passion to that issue, including a fortnight ago. I thank him, in particular, for giving a very graphic image for which I had been struggling until now.

The ambassador said global warming of five degrees will raise water levels by 80 ft. but he wondered why the property market in Dublin, or generally, does not take any interest in that. What it will mean for this city is that there will be water from Rathmines to Drumcondra at the very least. In fact, the headquarters of the ambassador's former great nemesis, the Taoiseach, at St. Luke's in Drumcondra, will be under water by the time his prospective grandchild is a grandparent. It is a vision to conjure up and it might gain some reaction from the property market and the political leadership in this city.

I thank the ambassador and ask my colleague, Senator Ross, to address him politely with some interesting questions.