Mr. Ciar?n Cuffe:

I am delighted to have seven minutes to address some of the questions.

Senator Currie spoke about the Good Friday Agreement. There are concerns there but I am very conscious that in politics, one campaigns in poetry and governs in prose. The rhetoric we saw from the Prime Minister, Ms Truss, will be tempered by the harsh reality of the office that she holds. I would be hopeful that the lines of communication will improve in the coming months. Looking at it from the Brussels-Strasbourg axis, a huge amount of our time is spent on accession countries such as Albania, Georgia and Moldova. These are countries that fervently see in the European Union democracy, freedom and help from their neighbours.The kinds of values the European Union has spoken about is what they cherish and long for. Many conversations that we have are about that. We want to continue to be good neighbours with the UK and I have no doubt that the Prime Minister, Liz Truss, will spend time on improving that relationship in the coming months. I hope that is the case.

Senator Flynn raised the impact on poorer communities. It is absolutely something that informs a huge amount of what we do. For instance, as part of the work on the energy performance of buildings directive, I am publishing an energy poverty handbook in ten days. That is produced by working with organisations that deal with poverty every day of the week. They are housing organisations and NGOs that know the reality of what high energy costs mean. There are practical solutions that can be rolled out this winter to those who are feeling the pain of high fuel bills. That work is extraordinarily important. I would happily take up the Senator's offer to come out to Labre Park. I was a member of the Traveller committee of Dublin City Council and have visited a lot of Traveller housing in the past. I would love to take her up on that again.

Senator Fitzpatrick spoke about what Europe can do to help. It is great to see the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, there. I find it hard to talk about MARA without referring to the other Mara that would be familiar to those in Fianna Fáil. There is very practical assistance such as European Investment Bank, EIB, funding. The EIB is now calling itself the climate bank. That is a radical change of direction. The biggest EIB funding Dublin received in recent years was for the third runway in Dublin Airport. I do not think the EIB would fund a project like that now. That is climate action on the ground. It is now funding retrofits in local authority housing in Dublin. There is a pivot happening there and it will continue. When it comes to funding, the EIB tends not to get out of bed for less than €50 million a day. I mean that metaphorically; it wants the big projects that are transformative. I see that across the board with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Central Bank. Even the discussion we had over the taxonomy was working out what is green and what is not. While I am unhappy with the result, there is clearly a direction of travel towards greater investment in renewables. Offshore energy is not cheap but the return is clear and continues over ten, 20 or 30 years. I have no doubt but that the money will flow there. I also want to see it flow to renovations of buildings. There was an attempt to set up an €80 billion fund that Commissioner Timmermans wanted but I think he was outvoted. I would like to see us revisit that because we need clear funds to deliver climate action whether it be offshore energy or renovations.

Senator Ward mentioned semiconductors. I met the high representative of Taiwan last week. We spoke in depth about the challenges that Taiwan faces. I think that the EU is a friend to Taiwan. We are obviously rethinking the geopolitics of our relationship with China and clearly our relationship with Russia. That work must continue in the years ahead.

Can we compel that investment in wind? Not directly but we are compelling the targets we set down in the energy efficiency directive and the renewable energy directive. That will push Ireland and other member states into more renewables. In Ireland's case that will be offshore wind. There will be more onshore wind, which is cheaper, but there is huge resistance to that and there are challenges there. For Ireland, the wind speeds that we have are the envy of Europe.

That more or less tackles the issues. I am sorry I do not have the information to hand to help Senator Dolan but perhaps my colleagues do.