Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Demetriou. It is great to see a woman in her post. I will not go any further on the gender thing, but if you cannot see it, you cannot be it. I am glad, therefore, that the females of Cyprus and beyond can see her, a woman, in this position. It is not only inspiring for women but also for men. This is also important. It is not only women who are inspired. We can inspire men as well when we take on roles that have traditionally been men's.

I wish to speak about climate action, climate change and biodiversity. I feel that as another island nation, we face similar challenges. I have looked up Cyprus and the predicted rise in sea levels that island will be facing and they are not dissimilar to ours. The projections for 2040 and 2050 forecast that many seaside towns in Cyprus, which are tourist destinations, will be faced with a serious threat in this regard, as are ours here. Rising temperatures are expected to increase by 1°C almost every five to ten years in Cyprus, the same as they are here. Turning to water scarcity, Cyprus is prone to droughts. Climate change will exacerbate those water scarcity issues. Rising sea levels, as I said, will of course pose a threat to our coastal communities and tourism.

I also see that Cyprus has done much good work in the renewable energy sector. Like us, though, it probably has much more to do in this area. We have had a bit of a revolution in solar energy generation here because we are going to put a solar panel on the roof of every school over the next three years. We have also removed the VAT rate on solar panels. We have done some good things in this area. We also have a good retrofitting programme but it is proving so popular that there is a backlog of applications.

Our two countries have much in common. Cyprus has a Green Party presence of some kind in its government as well. I think it is called the Green movement or something like that. Regardless, we all face the same challenges whether we have a Green Party presence in government or not. We did not invent climate change and we do not own the issue. This is, however, something we must take seriously as island nations. As Senator Horkan mentioned, there is a difference here in terms of the EU. This is not to mention the Seychelles and those countries that are smaller, poorer and less developed than ours. We do, though, face unique challenges. I do not talk as much about flights as the need to reinvest in things like providing sail-and-rail options. I could not find a single tourism operator in Ireland with which to book travel to a conference on behalf of the Government via a train-and-boat journey. Only flight bookings are catered for, which I thought was interesting. Perhaps there may be similar challenges in Cyprus. There are many ways to get around the place, however.Flying everywhere is not always required. We had some success with a boat that goes to Bilbao that would only take cars and trucks but which will now also take pedestrians and cyclists. That only came in within the last two years. These seem like small things but, as we face a highly uncertain future, if we are to give our children and their children a hope of a good quality of life, they are things that Cyprus and Ireland will have to take very seriously. We hold lovely diplomatic events but I am deeply concerned at the change I have seen in this world over the 25 years I have been involved in climate activism and at the challenges facing our countries. It would be remiss of me not to use these four minutes to speak mainly on that matter and on the great issues that Cyprus will face.

I was talking to one of the best sommeliers, wine experts, in Ireland and he told me that French vine growers are now looking for north-facing slopes instead of south-facing slopes because it is just too hot to grow vines in France. Maybe people will take this seriously if they think their wine will be affected but it is a very serious issue. He is now saying that colder countries like Ireland and England will be the ones growing wine. There was a weird thing on the TV recently saying that the climate challenge could be to Ireland's benefit because tourism in mainland Europe is becoming so challenging owing to the heat. People in mainland Europe are dying like they never did before because of the rising temperatures, which will be of benefit to our country because we will have great tourism, although I would hate for that to be the reason people come to our country. I would like them to come because we have a beautiful country that is a really good place to visit, like Cyprus. I have never been there but my parents are always raving about how amazing it is.

I look forward to working with Cyprus. We have a lot in common with regard to the climate and biodiversity challenges. I look forward to working with Ms Demetriou and her colleagues on those issues.