Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ms Demetriou, céad míle fáilte romhat. Literally, that means “a hundred thousand welcomes to you”. It emphasises the degree to which you are welcome and how happy we are to have you here.

As the Cathaoirleach did, I salute Ms Demetriou’s personal success, after a relatively short period in Parliament from 2016, in becoming the first woman to emerge as President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus. It is a huge personal achievement. She is an important role model for women and makes an important statement about the need for gender equality and full participation of all our people in all our institutions. I congratulate her on that.

I want to reference a few things in relation to her visit. First of all, we have so much in common. We have two distinct cultural traditions on each of our islands, with distinct populations, distinct ambitions and orientation towards other powers, etc. That gives us a commonality and a friendship. It is worthy that we would have dialogue in this area as to how we deal with our attempt to reconcile the people who see themselves as British on our island with the people who see themselves as Irish. There is now an increasing number who see themselves as both. We need to reconcile those traditions. Cyprus is also attempting reconciliation and there is a lot for both of us to ponder.

We have one other area of important commonality which has the potential for co-operation. That is that we are both small states within the EU. We small states need to be allies in the EU because we have a commonality of interest. We have to watch a race to integration by the larger states which could prejudice the welfare of the smaller states. We should align on that level and we should be conscious of the commonality of interest we have.

We also have a lot in common in terms of trade. Currently we need to increase that but we do have €30 million of trade. What we do have very much in common is the tourism product and I have had the privilege of a few beautiful family holidays in Cyprus. Many people have been to Cyprus and have very happy memories of those visits. Similarly, I hope that Cypriot people will come to Ireland. We have two very important tourism products. There are slight variations and we should be working on bilateral relations and co-operation on that, as with trade.

It is worthy of note that Ryanair is now going to Paphos. That involves a €400 million investment in Cyprus with 120 direct jobs and 1,500 related jobs. That is another area of potential co-operation

I am also happy that we are on the same page regarding the barbaric and illegal war in Ukraine. Ms Demetriou is very welcome and I would like that the areas of potential co-operation and friendship that we addressed could be worked on together. I hope the friendship between Cyprus and Ireland will go from strength to strength