Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I am pleased to have the opportunity to update the House on the progress of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS. The biodiversity emergency is among our greatest challenges, if not the greatest. Over the past 100 years, generations of Irish people have seen a gradual dimming of the variety of life, a greying out of the diversity of species and habitats and a silencing of the abundance of nature. While the change has been rapid from a biodiversity point of view, it has been slow from a human perspective and snail-paced from an electoral point of view. The issue has never, until now, been seen as urgent and important.

My commitment to elevating the issue of nature and biodiversity in this House is well known. Under the Government's leadership, Ireland has taken unprecedented steps forward to advance its protection, conservation and restoration approach. Chief among these was the decision to equip the National Parks and Wildlife Service with the funding, staffing and structural transformation it needed to unlock the potential for biodiversity action across the Government and the State as a whole.

My most immediate task was resourcing. Since I became Minister of State, I have delivered significant increases in the NPWS's budget allocation, from €28.7 million in 2020 to €53 million in 2023, excluding payroll. Combined with funding from EU LIFE programmes and other biodiversity resourcing, this gives us an effective budget for nature of approximately €90 million this year. It is a huge achievement of which the Government rightly should be proud. I have increased NPWS staff numbers from 320 in 2020 to almost 500 today. Payroll for this year is up almost 20% on 2022, which is funding the recruitment necessary to drive change. Recruitment is ongoing for key staff across specialist ecology roles, including marine ecology, ecohydrology and ornithology, as well as rangers and general operatives. We are on track to increase the number of conservation rangers to 120 by next spring.

We need more than money and people to deliver real, systemic change. The programme for Government committed us to reviewing the remit and status of the NPWS. That review was completed in spring 2022 and delivered a series of recommendations to renew the organisation and make it more resilient, more effective and better equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century. A total of 46 actions were outlined in a three-year process through a strategic action plan. The plan was supported by the Government and backed with a €55 million investment over three budgetary cycles. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and I are proud that, one year on, we are making strong progress on implementation. Just two weeks ago, we published a progress report outlining the work to date, with the overwhelming majority of actions shown to be on track.

A number of key milestones have been achieved. The NPWS is now an executive agency under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. It has undergone a full organisational restructuring along functional lines, with six new directorates and nine geographic divisions. It has a dedicated management committee comprising the director general and senior directors at principal officer level who are responsible for each directorate. It has also published a strategic plan outlining the mission, values and strategic goals that will guide the NPWS until the end of 2025. That is a key action in the action plan.

There is more going on behind the scenes. At policy level, the fourth national biodiversity action plan has been in development since October 2021. I expect the final version to be published before the end of this year. It will set the national biodiversity agenda for the period 2023 to 2030 and aims to deliver the actions needed to value and protect nature. Crucially, it takes account of the EU biodiversity strategy, the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework that was adopted at COP15 last year, as well as relevant national policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy strategic plan, the climate action plan and the river basin management plan, among others. It also addresses the recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss and the children and young people's assembly on biodiversity loss.

Stakeholder engagement has been central to the iterative development of the fourth national biodiversity action plan, NBAP. Information sessions, workshops and bilateral discussions have taken place with a range of Government bodies and stakeholders. A public consultation was launched in September 2022 that drew a wide range of passionate, informed and constructive views from across society.

In terms of legislation, work is ongoing to update and consolidate the Wildlife Act and the birds and habitats regulations, with a focus on deterrence and improving the enforceability of biodiversity laws. This process will, of course, include public consultation. Separately, the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2016 was back in the Dáil yesterday, providing for changes to the network of raised bog protected areas, putting the national biodiversity action plan on a statutory footing and placing a biodiversity duty on Departments and public bodies. In addition, we are undertaking a review of the open seasons order and public consultation has taken place on the wild birds declaration.

Wildlife protection is fundamental to the work of the NPWS and the organisation has never been more focused and effective in tackling it. A dedicated directorate for wildlife enforcement and nature protection is now established and staff are working across all regions of the country to address wildlife crime. The Department currently has 69 prosecution cases on hand for alleged breaches of wildlife legislation. A joint protocol between the NPWS and An Garda Síochána has been in place since 2021. We are building a close and effective working relationship with An Garda Síochána and other relevant enforcement agencies. Recently, a successful joint training exercise was held between the Garda in Donegal and the NPWS relating to birds of prey prosecutions.

At a local level, the NPWS is making enormous progress by rolling out the new biodiversity officers programme across the country, thereby creating a vital link between national policy and local delivery. We are further supporting this link through the local biodiversity action fund, the allocation for which I increased from €1.2 million in 2022 to €3 million in 2023. The fund enables local authorities to carry out biodiversity-related projects supporting actions in the national biodiversity action plan. It is an important part of how we engage with communities. This year, all 31 local authorities applied for and will receive funding, with a total of 186 projects approved, including invasive alien species control, dune restoration, wetland surveys and biodiversity awareness and training.

At the operational level, an information and communications technology transformation project is under way to deliver a fit-for-purpose ICT platform that allows for better integration and sharing of data and improved efficiencies. One example of this is the processing of licences through the eLicensing portal.

Also fundamental to our work is the continued investment in our national parks and nature reserves. These special places are at the core of the work of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Their ongoing management, for the millions of people who visit them and the incredible wildlife that inhabits them, is a cornerstone of our efforts to protect nature. In Killarney National Park, a new fire plan containing all the key elements to enable a rapid, co-ordinated response, in conjunction with the local emergency services, is in place. More than 20 NPWS staff have received fire training and now have access to full fire personal protective equipment, PPE, portable water pumps, a 4 x 4 firefighting vehicle and a helicopter. Early fire detection systems are also in place. We have a new satellite link for fire and smoke detection. A monitoring station will be installed at Lord Brandon's Cottage, with a tower that gives unparalleled views over sensitive locations at which fires have previously occurred. I saw this at first hand on a visit to Killarney some weeks ago.

It really is an incredible, co-ordinated effort. Through the Killarney National Park liaison committee, the NPWS is also engaging with a volunteer group that does patrols to further support early detection. International collaboration with peers in the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK is also ongoing to ensure best practice on fire prevention, detection and control. We are also progressing an in-depth empirical study into the ecological impacts of the 2021 fire that devastated vast swathes of the park. This study is assessing the damage and helping us to understand how habitats and populations of species are recovering and it will inform future management. It is fair to say that lessons have been learned.

In addition to this, staff at Killarney National Park are doing exceptional work to tackle the invasive rhododendron that is choking the woodlands and inhibiting their natural regeneration. A new rhododendron eradication plan is very nearly complete. It is the product of two years’ work with a team of consultants to define systems, methods and approaches for long-term management. It is currently being peer-reviewed and is due for publication this autumn. The plan is underpinned by a new geographic information system, GIS, monitoring system that provides a living dataset to prioritise and target clearance works. Staff and contractors are currently mapping the status of rhododendron infestations across the park’s 53 zones. The mapping of 12 of these zones is completed while work on ten more is under way. Over the past six months, over 1,000 acres of old oak woodland has been cleared of rhododendron regrowth as part of a follow-up after initial clearance. I recently visited to see some of this work at first hand and it is really quite impressive. Another large area will be eradicated later this year, in line with the eradication plan. This strategic data-led approach to the long-term management of rhododendron is extremely positive news for Killarney and for the myriad species that call this place home. It is a battle we are determined to win.

We are also tackling the deer populations that have such damaging impacts on our vulnerable native woodlands. In Killarney, research to establish density and population data in the park is ongoing. This work is informing the targeting of control measures through a strict culling programme that has seen 600 deer dispatched since 2020, as well as habitat protection measures, including fencing for the most sensitive habitats such as old sessile oak woodland, yew woodland and alluvial wet woodland to allow these to regenerate, which is really important.

In Wicklow Mountains National Park, staff are routinely engaged in actively preventing some of the most damaging activities in the national park and special area of conservation. Measures include deer control, fire prevention and work to prevent the erosion of sensitive upland habitats. All staff are now fully equipped and trained in relation to firefighting in upland environments and active patrolling by conservation staff is helping to discourage illegal burning and the use of all-terrain vehicles, ATVs. Illegal ATV use is prosecuted and, in 2023, three successful cases have been brought before the courts. A range of bog restoration projects are exploring novel approaches to rehabilitate damaged peatlands, including large-scale restoration works on active blanket bog at Liffey Head and a significant 2,000 ha biodiversity restoration project at Glenasmole that will support nature-based solutions for the River Dodder. Woodland creation and management projects are also under way at Glendalough and at other sites throughout the park.

In our farthest-flung and, arguably, most dramatically beautiful national park, Glenveagh, County Donegal, 2,000 native Scots pine trees bred from Irish genetic material have been planted as part of a broader suite of measures to improve native woodland habitat creation. In addition to this, hundreds of hectares of rhododendron are currently being cleared from the hillsides and, once this work is complete, a native woodland establishment programme will get under way alongside an integrated deer management programme.

In addition to this, we are continuing the successful reintroduction programmes that have so captured the public’s imagination. Our white-tailed eagle programme is part of a long-term initiative to re-establish a population of this iconic, and once extinct, species and it is working. In recent years, we have seen the first Irish-bred female eagle to fledge young in over 100 years and this year saw the first Irish-bred male to successfully fledge a chick since the reintroduction programme began. This summer, we will also begin to reintroduce the spectacular osprey, which was once common in Ireland, bringing another keystone species to our skies, raising conservation awareness and inspiring people for years to come. Alongside this core ecology work, we are also improving facilities, signage, interpretation and education and developing and maintaining new and existing trails and walkways to improve the visitor experience and safety across the entire network. We are also advancing visitor centre plans at Coole Park, Connemara, the Burren and more.

This is just a selection of the work under way in our national parks and nature reserves. If I had the rest of the day to speak, I would go on in endless detail about the enormous rehabilitation and restoration efforts under way to transform Wild Nephin National Park and to improve habitat conditions in Connemara National Park, the Burren National Park, Glengarriff Nature Reserve, the Raven Nature Reserve, and so many others across the country. Instead, I suggest that Deputies visit some these amazing places, if they get some time over the summer break, that they meet some of our NPWS staff and talk to them about the work taking place on the ground in these really special places.

Beyond the lands in my ownership, the NPWS is making truly Herculean efforts to protect and restore nature in the wider countryside through dedicated programmes that collaborate with communities and reward landowners to protect and restore habitats such as blanket bog, raised bog, machair, species-rich grasslands, eskers, coastal dunes, fens, turloughs and fixed dunes and to conserve endangered species like corncrake, curlew and my own personal favourite, the natterjack toad, with dedicated teams of ecologists and rangers sometimes working around the clock to protect a single nest.

Furthermore, I expect that we will have around 300 NPWS farm plans operational and paid in 2023 through an investment of €2.37 million. These farm plans are highly valued by the farming community and I remind everyone that the 2023 farm plan scheme is currently open and accepting applications up to 4 August. I encourage anyone interested in participating in the scheme to make an application. The farm plan scheme really is transformative. It is very popular and many of the landowners and farmers I meet who are in the scheme really value it and become true champions for nature conservation on their own lands.

This is but a small selection of our work, all of which is underpinned by scientific advice through the monitoring and research programmes that our staff carry out on an ongoing basis in all corners of the country, across all habitats and, indeed, in all weathers. It is in the context of all of this that I would like to address the recent ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, CJEU. Last week, the CJEU issued its judgment against Ireland in what is known as the measures case, which concerns the implementation of the habitats directive. The directive requires Ireland to identify a network of sites, Natura 2000 sites, where important or endangered animal or plant species or certain rare or vulnerable habitat types are present. Based on our initial reading, the court found against Ireland on three grounds, namely, the designation of sites, the identification of site-specific conservation objectives and the implementation of conservation measures. The court dismissed a number of aspects of the Commission’s case and did not find that a persistent or systemic breach of Ireland’s obligations under the directive had occurred. It is important to note that this judgment refers to the position in January 2019 and that very significant progress on the designation of sites has been made since that date with 95% of our Natura 2000 sites now covered by statutory instrument and the remaining 15 on track to be completed before the end of this year. Of those sites covered by the case, 100% now have site-specific conservation objectives in place and extraordinary work is being done all across the country and in the NPWS itself on the development and implementation of conservation measures. We will take time to consider the judgment in detail and develop a plan of action to address any aspects on which we still have work to do.

My aim today was to demonstrate that this Government has delivered an NPWS that is more resilient, better resourced and better equipped to fulfil its mission to protect nature and play its part in Ireland’s response to the biodiversity emergency on the national and international stage. Let us be honest; it is badly needed. The scientific evidence documenting the loss of nature in recent years has really been indisputable. Far too many of the key indicators are going in the wrong direction. We have made the first steps towards addressing this but if we do not continue to bring about improvements, we could face further infringement action from the EU with the potential for heavy fines and, what is worse, the irreversible loss of our natural heritage. Species only go extinct once. I am firmly of the view that we should invest now and do everything in our power to avoid these outcomes.

If I may, I will reiterate that this is precisely why the nature restoration law is so important. Yesterday’s vote of 121 to nine in favour of the Government amendment in support of the law was a compelling and definitive indication of this House’s support for our natural world. I thank all parties and Deputies who supported that amendment. The National Parks and Wildlife Service is absolutely central to the delivery of that ambition and, as the House has heard, we have taken the first steps to ensure it is empowered to do so. We must continue this trajectory. Before I finish, I will pay tribute to all of the team in the National Parks and Wildlife Service across the country from general operatives to park rangers and our scientific staff.

Over the past three years I have met the most dedicated people. These are people who will literally sit and protect a curlew's nest 24-7 to ensure the chicks hatch. It is that level of dedication, which these people have consistently provided, that we have tried to support over the past couple of years. We have tried to give that support in a tangible way, to ensure they feel valued, and do not feel isolated when they are out on a bog site or a nature reserve. What we have done over the past three years, for them as well as for nature, has been truly transformative. However, there is no doubt we have to go a distance further if we are to achieve the collective ambition in this House to protect and restore nature.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on the progress of the National Parks and Wildlife Service and on the interconnected issue of Ireland's biodiversity crisis. Until recently, successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-led Governments failed to take these issues seriously. Decades of their paralysis have landed us in the situation we are now in, which is way behind where we once had the potential to be. Data from the NPWS note that Ireland is suffering widespread habitat destruction and nature loss. The situation is extremely worrying. Species are becoming extinct. This includes fish, mammals, birds, plant life and insects. Soils are being degraded and water quality is declining. This is evidenced by the fact that a staggering 85% of Ireland's habitats are in inadequate or poor states. Some 46% are demonstrating ongoing decline. Just 2% of Ireland is still covered in native forest, which is one of the lowest rates in Europe. Some 43% of all protected species are in an unfavourable condition. More shockingly, of those groups that have undergone formal conservation assessments, more than one species in five is threatened with extinction.

The 29 June judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union is therefore not surprising. More specifically, the CJEU found that Ireland had failed to fulfil its objectives under Articles 4.4 and 6.1 of the 2011 habitats directive. As of 2019, the Government was yet to designate 217 of the 423 sites of special areas of conservation, which was to take place within six years of the law coming into force. I recognise there has been progress since 2019 and the Government has begun to address Ireland's biodiversity decline and its decades of mismanagement of this issue. However, there is much more to be done. I also welcome the renewed efforts to ensure that the NPWS is fit for purpose, beginning with the 2022 action plan and the recently published strategic action plan for 2023 to 2025. These moves come on the back of several independent reviews, which found that the NPWS was inadequately empowered to do its job. Sinn Féin will support Government measures seeking to address this. We believe in a strong, fully resourced and independent NPWS. In that vein, we hope the NPWS will continue to evolve and grow to reflect the challenge and the staggering pace and scale at which Ireland's interconnected ecosystem is being destroyed. We hope it will continue to play its part in halting that decline.

We welcome that the strategic action plan sets out a clear pathway to a more resilient and effective organisation. This is essential if it is to carry out its key role of addressing Ireland's crisis in nature and biodiversity imperatives. It is also significant that the NPWS places co-operation and engagement at the heart of its plans to achieve its seven key strategic goals, representing a further enhancement of the step change that took place in the organisation in 2022. In Sinn Féin, we have always advocated for strong public participation. We believe that if we are going to tackle these issues head-on, we need to do it together. These are incredibly complex and difficult problems that impact all of us We must talk and listen to one another and must build trust in order that we can move forward together. This is eminently possible but will only happen if we are all determined to achieve it.

While it is important to welcome progress, it is equally important to recognise there is still a long way to go. This was made abundantly clear in the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which concluded that the State has comprehensively failed to adequately fund, implement and enforce existing national legislation, national policies, EU biodiversity-related laws and directives related to biodiversity. This is simply unacceptable. It is not good enough and the Government is required to be transparent, clear and reflective as to why it has failed so considerably. As a result we are playing catch-up, and there is absolutely no room for delay. In particular, the NPWS workforce plan for the six new directorates is not yet complete. Given just how important these plans are to adequate resourcing, I call on the Government to urgently put all workforce plans in place. Further, the Government has yet to consider the wider issue of the roles and functions of public bodies with regard to nature and biodiversity. This was also a recommendation of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, which cited a distinct lack of clarity and leadership in this area. This is another recommendation on which the Government should act.

In conclusion, I commend all the efforts that have been made to ensure the NPWS is reaching a place where it is adequately resourced and fit for purpose to do the huge body of work it needs to do. Part of that is about resourcing. Part of it is about structure and governance and literally bringing this work to the fields and communities that need to be supported. I echo the Minister of Stater's comments commending those in the NPWS who do such tireless and important work. To also echo the Minister of State's invitation, I invite him to Girley Bog. It is a Coillte LIFE project for demonstrating best practice in raised bog restoration. It is just outside Kells, County Meath, and I know it well. It is something else and is literally a best practice example of what can be done. It is an absolute credit to the small handful of people who nurtured it over many years. Now the whole community gets to benefit from the eco trail. From young to old, people can recognise what those habitats and environments can be like. It is a credit to everybody involved.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important topic. We have just completed a Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss, and the general consensus was that while the Government has declared a biodiversity crisis, there is little evidence it is being taken seriously. I welcome the Minister of State's remarks on wildlife crime and An Garda Síochána becoming involved when crimes are committed.

I would like to direct my remarks in a particular direction, towards Emo Court House, County Laois, and to the brown long-eared bats roosting there. It is the neighbouring county to my native county of Kildare. I specifically ask why the recommendation from the NPWS ranger relating to the house was ignored. The Minister of State is well aware that biodiversity and the need to conserve are now lodged firmly in the public mind. My constituents in north Kildare are well aware of our biodiversity crisis. The Minister of State would be surprised by how many people raise it with me when knocking on doors and meeting people, especially the need to protect and preserve it in this current and deepening climate crisis. He can imagine their concern at Ireland being reprimanded last week by the Court of Justice of the European Union for being in breach of the habitats directive. Our situation is as far as it is possible to be from our reputation as a clean, green island where our biodiversity is cherished. In fact, it is being trashed.

This ruling brings even greater urgency to the situation of the bats at Emo Court House. There are several issues here. It was known that the brown long-eared bat was roosting in the basement there in 2006. The OPW hired an ecologist who told that organisation it would need a licence if it was to do any work on the house. The ecologist also told the OPW that any disturbance would be a notifiable action under Irish and EU law. Yet for reasons unknown, the OPW decided the law did not apply to it. The Aire Stáit is in government with Fine Gael, which claims its place as a law-and-order party no less. I am at a loss to understand why the OPW, under a Fine Gael Minister of State, decided the law of the land did not apply to it.

The Minister of State will be aware that in December 2019 the NPWS followed up on a complaint that the OPW had essentially ignored that ecological advice. This was ecological advice that the organisation had paid for using taxpayers' money it had been given. Unbelievably, it had gone ahead with the works and done so without the licence it was told it needed. On foot of this, the OPW was issued with a letter instructing it to cease and desist. Once again, even on receipt of this letter, the OPW decided it was above the law. I say this because, in January 2020, the NPWS inspected the site and found the controversial works that had been ordered to cease had, in fact, continued.

The Minister of State will be aware that this led to an NPWS inspection report. On the back of this report in November 2020, the regional ranger recommended the following:

In light of the evidence that unfolded during my investigation, I recommend that the Office of Public Works is prosecuted under Regulations 51 (2)(b); and 51 2 (d) of the European Communities (Birds & Natural Habitats) Regulations ... for disturbing the breeding and resting place of bats in Emo Court House without a bat derogation licence.

A recommendation that the OPW be prosecuted is a serious matter. This prosecution takes place on foot of the disturbance of such an important breeding and roosting place, a disturbance that took place without a licence. Given the seriousness of this situation, can the Aire Stáit shed some light on why this breach concerning an important species was not and has not been followed up on? Who made the decision not to prosecute? My comrade, Senator Lynn Boylan, has been raising this issue for more than a year and a half. She has been unable to find out this information, despite her best efforts, including submitting freedom of information requests and raising this matter in the Seanad. Will the Minister of State please tell us why the OPW, which is publicly tasked with looking after our heritage, seems to think that the law established to look after our heritage has nothing to do with it?

Given the public concern for our environment and heritage, especially now in light of the EU ruling against us, what sort of message does this send to everyone else to whom this law applies? Why should we expect developers or indeed local authorities to respect the law when the OPW blithely ignores it? Does the Minister of State accept that breaches to the protection of Annex IV species under the habitat directives do not allow for discretion to be applied? These are strict liability matters and, therefore, the NPWS should have initiated proceedings against what was happening at Emo Court House. I do not think the situation there is a one-off incident, and the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling this week shows us this.

The Minister of State has an opportunity to change the culture and demonstrate that Ireland recognises we are in a biodiversity emergency and we are prepared to act as such. He has said that he wants to see a zero-tolerance approach to wildlife crime. He should start with this case of Emo Court House by ensuring those who willfully disturbed the bat roost there are held accountable. I am again asking the Minister of State to tell us who made the decision not to prosecute in this case. I believe he is an honourable man and I am sure he does not wish to stand alongside this blatant law-breaking on behalf of an arm of the State. I ask him to respond to me in his closing statement. I must leave the Chamber to attend a meeting, but I will try to return or look back over the Minister of State's closing statement. I would very much like him to address this matter because it is extremely important and cannot just be let slide.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on these statements on progress concerning the NPWS. This organisation has required dramatic structural change. An attempt is being made to do this, but it is a shame this is happening at a time when the world is burning and we are at crisis levels in respect of biodiversity loss. We are playing catch-up to get our own battalions in order and ready to fight this multiplicity of crises.

The biodiversity and climate crises are interlinked. What binds and is common to both is that they are made and exacerbated by humans. The response from our State needs to be well structured and resourced to fight these crises where they exist. The changes made and in the process of being made are long overdue and welcome, but we must start seeing them in action. I know the Minister of State has set out several actions that are happening all over the country.

I would like to bring to his attention a few others. One of the recommendations that emerged from the citizens' assembly was about working with other public bodies. I am thinking of Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI. Its representatives are in here today appearing before the Committee of Public Accounts. They will not be talking about the health of our rivers and riverbanks or about water quality, but about the leasing of properties in Mayo and uninsured cars. This is another controversy concerning a State agency. It is deeply unfortunate because our rivers are the lifeblood, the veins, of biodiversity throughout our country.

There have been moments of optimism in respect of river water quality in recent years. Unfortunately, these have been lost. In 2011, the River Tolka in Dublin welcomed, for the first time in more than 100 years, the return of Atlantic salmon. For a brief moment, we had the Liffey, the Tolka and the Dodder all welcoming Atlantic salmon. That window, unfortunately, has been lost. The vulnerability of the River Tolka, especially, to pollution and fish kills has seen it struck in this way several times, most dramatically in 2018. We have had this window of opportunity. If we can get a healthy salmon and trout population to live in a river, this is the best measure of its health and water quality.

We need to be examining the water of our rivers in cities. These are the biodiversity corridors in our urban areas. There is such an appreciation and understanding of this aspect, especially from younger people. We have all experienced over the last several years how close to the political hearts of young people these issues of climate and biodiversity are. I represent a constituency that is urban, rural and coastal. What binds young people together is where they see nature being made stronger and an opportunity to improve biodiversity. They will gravitate towards such efforts and will want to support them. They will want the rivers to be healthy and strong. We are not, though, seeing this co-ordinated work being done between State agencies to the level we should. Much of the work of IFI, which does great work on the ground in monitoring fish stocks and water quality, involves efforts to enforce laws concerning illegal fishing and these kinds of things. We need to see more resources being directed to support the good work that is being done by IFI.

On the NPWS as well, regarding coastal erosion, we are still waiting for the report on the coastal change management strategy. It has been three years since this process was launched and we still have not seen it published. More importantly, we have not seen the actions that need to be put in place. We need to see the restoration of our dunes. This is needed in my constituency and up and down the entire east coast. Very dramatically, it is needed in Portrane. In that case, the NPWS was hindering work being undertaken to protect the dunes because it was protecting terns nesting on the flatlands and sands at the upper end of the beach.

What has happened, unfortunately, is that we have lost everything there. If we had worked to protect the dunes and keep the ecosystem in place it would have had the knock-on effect of ensuring that the nesting sites for the terns were protected. Unfortunately, now everyone is a loser: nature is a loser, the communities in the area are losers, and we are seeing dune loss on Portmarnock Beach, which is being exacerbated by human activity. The measures being put in place, quite frankly, are pretty rinky-dink in that a rope is tied to a couple of stakes and people are encouraged not to run up and down the dunes. We need stronger measures. This is why we need an NPWS that works and is on the ground delivering habitat protection and guarding against biodiversity loss.

I will say a few words on the nature restoration law coming from the EU. We need to see that law passed. We need to see Ireland supporting it with a full throat. The law is not even as ambitious of some of the Government's actual climate targets. We need to see that delivered. We have seen it attacked at EU level and negative commentary about it. It is fundamentally about the return of natural habitats on the land, in the sea and in rivers. This should not be subject to debate. We should be energised across this House. I agree with the Minister of State that last night's vote was encouraging, but we need to see it carry through. We cannot have what we saw in the EU committees gravitate into this Chamber. If the EU restoration law is enacted, we will need a strong NPWS in order to make it work. As the Minister of State outlined in his opening statement, this is probably the most important challenge we face.

Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I commend the Minister of State and the Department on the work that is being done to strengthen our national parks and wildlife.

There is an awful lot to be done. I believe that this Government has taken notable strides in increasing funding for the National Parks and Wildlife Service and building a framework that will ensure sustainability into the future. The work of the National Parks and Wildlife Service underpins so much of the work carried out to protect our ecosystem. Climate change, habitat degradation and the introduction of invasive species pose ongoing threats that we must reverse.

To this end, in recent years we have seen a range of measures taken by the Government to safeguard our ecosystem, expand the network of national parks, and enhance the number of wildlife sanctuaries, nature reserves and more. The introduction of an increased number of protected areas allows for vital habitats for species of native flora and fauna to recover and grow stronger. Indeed, we have seen a number of species rebound in recent years, but we must also acknowledge the trend that has seen some species decline. This is a trend that is, unfortunately, happening across the world. Recent studies carried out by Queen's University Belfast show that almost half of all species on Earth are currently in decline, with just 3% of species increasing and with the extinction of species currently between 100 to 1,000 times above the anticipated rate. This report also shows that the global picture with regard to biodiversity is far worse than previously thought.

Both our national and global ecosystems are inextricably linked. The destruction of these fragile ecosystems poses a risk to everyone. It weakens food production, reduces water quality, increases the emergence of disease and viruses, and reduces the quality of the air that we breathe. This underscores the importance of the actions that we take here at home and the far-reaching impacts that those decisions can have. In particular, I commend the Minister of State on work such as the recent announcement of a 2,000 ha project at Glenasmole in County Wicklow. This project, which is being led by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, will see native woodland planting, bog rehabilitation, increasing biodiversity and more. This will result in increased carbon storage, reduced soil erosion and improvements to water quality in the area. This is particularly notable as Glenasmole is the source of the River Dodder that flows through large sections of Dublin. This represents a positive and ambitious step that I believe should be pursued in other areas of the country. That would provide a huge range of benefits, not just to the environment but to local communities and to the many visitors that such sites attract for recreation, research and more.

I also want to highlight the positive approach taken by the Department and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which I understand engaged significantly with local farmers in Glenasmole who have been looking after the area for generations. This shows the strength of what can be achieved when communities and the Government come together and work in tandem. I very much hope that this approach will be replicated in the future. I encourage the Minister of State to look north of the Liffey if other such projects are being considered.

The decision to plant native woodland is of considerable importance and one that we must see repeated in other areas. The forestry sector plays a significant role in our country, and I believe it has much more to offer in the years ahead. The sustainable planting of native trees has a wide range of benefits and I hope that we will continue to see an increase in the level of investment in this sector by the Government, as has been the case in recent years. This can offer huge potential for jobs, sustainability, clean air and carbon sequestration. However, I highlight the need for further support in an effort to close the skills and labour shortage within the sector. I urge relevant Departments to consider what measures they can implement to remedy this situation.

I also welcome the recent creation of a dedicated directorate within the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which will lead the implementation of conservation measures across all of Ireland's Natura 2000 sites. This is an important step that will allow us to ensure that clear and targeted aims can be achieved in an effective manner.

I also note that there have been a number of advancements under the Strategic Action Plan 2022-2024 for the National Parks and Wildlife Service. I look forward in particular to the forthcoming publication of a framework for the development of strategic plans for the national parks, which I understand is anticipated to be finalised in September of this year. Clear mission goals set out in defined strategies, such as I hope to see, will allow us to build pathways forward to achieve those goals and, importantly, outline the necessary resource allocations which are crucial to sustainable project development.

Under the strategic action plan, I also eagerly await the development and publication of legislation on national parks and nature conservation which I believe it is hoped will be introduced in the Oireachtas early next year. This will prove another important step that will set Ireland on a binding route to better conservation methods, which is vital to the sustainability of our biodiversity and ecosystems.

I will also take this opportunity to comment on the nature restoration law. Several Members have done so already. It has been the subject of much debate in recent days and weeks. As Members of the House will be aware, the European Commission has published a highly anticipated proposal for an EU nature restoration law. This proposal aims to restore at least 20% of the EU's land and sea areas by 2030 and repair ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. This is a major undertaking and the first of its kind in the European Union. I welcome the ambition of this piece of work, and while I understand the difference of opinion that this debate has caused, I urge all of the relevant actors to work together to find a workable solution to such an important matter.

The conservation of our marine areas, just as our parks, is of the utmost importance. Earlier this year we marked the introduction of Ireland's first hope spot off the coast of Kerry, marking it out as an area of critical importance for marine life at risk of extinction. By 2030 it is anticipated that 30% of Irish territorial waters will be marine protected areas, which will be pivotal in allowing marine life to grow sustainably in our waters, leading to healthier, cleaner seas.

Our deep connection to the land and sea is at the core of the history of this nation and its peoples. Now more than ever, we are called to honour that connection and to protect life in all its forms on this planet. By acting here at home, we can create a brighter future for our people and show the real leadership that is required on the international stage. We cannot have a future without biodiversity, and if we are to be successful we must be seen to devise policy and also to act to progress what we have achieved to date. I look forward to contributing to that effort.

The Minister of State understands better than most the importance of our forestry sector and having a sustainable forestry sector, as I mentioned earlier, with regard to the planting or replanting of native woodlands. Our forestry sector, as the Minister of State well knows, is in the middle of quite a bit of difficulty when it comes to obtaining both planting and felling licences. In fact, a constituent was on to me just this week about his difficulty. I will refer him to the appropriate Minister in due course. He has been trying for nearly a year to get a planting licence for 30 ha in Fingal. These frustrations are felt right across the sector. There is an organisation of which I am sure the Minister of State is aware called the Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland, SEEFA. It has rather helpfully, notwithstanding anything else it is doing, been sending us lists of planting and felling numbers. Looking at what we were looking to achieve and what we have actually achieved on both sides versus the trend, unfortunately I have not seen evidence of that trend improving. The Minister of State will be only too aware of that.

Whatever the difficulty is with certain individuals across the State referring these matters to the courts, among other things, we have to realise that there are and have been thousands upon thousands of hectares of trees planted across this country for the specific purpose of being felled for various industries, including house building. We must recognise that was their purpose. We must put in place a reasonable strategy that can be achieved, both by the State through the likes of Coillte and other actors, so we can achieve those things and reverse that downward trend into an upward tick, which can only be of benefit both to this country and to its people. From a carbon perspective, native woodland being grown for the purposes of house-building, for instance, rather than importing the timber required, can only be a positive thing. If the right sorts of trees are planted in the rights sorts of environments, which was unfortunately not always the case, we will see an improved ecosystem and biodiversity in those given areas. The Minister of State and his colleagues have done huge work on this but I would like to see progress. Unless the Minister of State can correct me, and I would welcome him doing so, I have not see that progress just yet.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I welcome the opportunity to have this discussion. First, I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State and of the Department on biodiversity. Compared to previous Governments and previous Ministers, the Minister of State has really tried to grab this issue and make substantive changes. The reform of the national parks is one of those changes. The staff of the national parks are all there because they are dedicated to and passionate about biodiversity. Sometimes the structures or lack of resources get in the way of them and in the way of that entity fulfilling its true mandate and its true potential. I hope these reforms will enable that to happen.

I agree with the Minister of State about slowness. We just do not have the time or the luxury of time anymore. Sometimes I feel like we are just running to stand still with regard to this. There was a report from University College Cork, UCC, today stating that a number of our rare native plants will become extinct because of climate change. We are also now seeing the impact of climate change on our already embattled biodiversity. That is just going to exacerbate all the issues we have with biodiversity. That study also said that there will be an increase in invasive species, such as non-native deer.

I will talk about that later because it is something we really need to come to terms with.

The Minister of State spoke of the amount of funding his Department has provided. It has increased from €28 million to €53 million. That is a significant increase but is coming from a very low bar. I came across some interesting statistics last night. A CSO report last year identified that €4.8 billion in environmental taxes was taken in by the State in 2021, yet only €53 million is being directed towards nature and biodiversity. There is a large gap there that needs to be addressed because we will need funding and resources in order to address this issue.

On the speed at which these matters are dealt with, there are a number of things the Department could do immediately. I understand many of the reforms take time. Much of the work takes consultation and time to be done properly and to have robust systems in place but a number of things could be done and I ask that the Minister of State direct some focus to them. He spoke of the rhododendron battle in Killarney National Park. We have seen how devastating that has been not only for Killarney but across many areas. The Minister of State could ban the sale of that species of rhododendron and the subspecies from garden centres because it makes no sense that the State is putting huge resources into protecting our wildlife from this invasive species at the same time as any gardener can go out and purchase the same plant. There are a number of plants in the same boat. We need to get in before they become the next rhododendron issue. Will the Minister of State look at banning rhododendron or working with garden centres to raise awareness? I believe that gardeners would choose not to plant it in their gardens if they understood what it could mean for neighbouring environments.

In a biodiversity crisis in which our bird populations are plummeting, it is extraordinary the Minister of State is signing off on licences to shoot and hunt red-listed birds. I ask that he consider stopping that. It makes no sense in the ecological climate we are in. It is similar with the hare, an issue I addressed last night in the Dáil. The Minister of State needs to stop issuing those licences. I have presented him with a legal argument as to why that needs to stop for the upcoming season.

I will refer specifically to our national parks, using Wicklow Mountains National Park as an example. Our national parks do not have management plans. We need such plans in place and at the centre of each plan we need to specify that biodiversity is the key priority for the national parks. It should not be farming, tourism or recreation. Biodiversity has to be the core purpose. The other activities can be part of the plan but biodiversity needs to be prioritised above everything else. I ask that the Minister of State take that into consideration.

I did work in Wicklow recently when I went out with the Pro Silva team. We went to a continuous cover forest and the team explained the concept. It was disturbing to hear from one of the foresters, who is an expert in this area, that not a single native forest in County Wicklow will be there in the future if we continue as we are. None of them are growing. They are in a moribund condition and the reason is the high level of non-native deer impacting on growth. Every time a tree tries to regenerate in those forests, the saplings are gone within days. That is the key difficulty with protecting those sites. The Minister of State is training the NPWS on deer control but it is like trying to fight the tide. There needs to be focus in government on dealing with that species, particularly if we will have increased populations. I ask that greater levels of protection and enforcement be introduced and resourced for the Wicklow Mountains National Park and all national parks, and that invasive species be dealt with. These are our core areas. We need to protect and expand them and connect them with other areas but first we have to protect what is there. I ask the Minister of State to do that.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his presentation. Our committee is now being asked to examine the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss. It makes compelling reading. There is no doubt the intensification of production in agriculture and other industries has had a huge impact on nature. There is a figure thrown around which I have often used. It is that our production and consumption activities are extracting from nature three times what it can restore in a year. That is the direction we are heading and clearly there are consequences from that for all of us and even for the sustainability of many of the businesses doing so. It does not take Einstein to recognise that.

The Minister needs to be commended on the progress being made. As he said, 95% of Natura regions are now subject to regulation. There is a significant shift in the State attitude, with Bord na Móna's title going from brown to green and Coillte's target of 50% of its forestry being managed for diversity, building from the present 20%. There are grounds for optimism that we can make the shift, huge as the scale of the challenge is.

It is crucial people do not feel overwhelmed by the statistics thrown around about the scale of deterioration. They are in this report and we have heard some of them in this debate. That is not to understate the truth of them. We had 500 pristine rivers and are now down to 32, I think. Many habitats are not improving. There is a scale of challenge but if people feel overwhelmed by the scale and do not get an understanding that we can have early wins and make significant changes through the mechanisms the Minister of State is developing, we will set the progress back.

One of the things that worries me most about the debate on the nature restoration law is it has been conducted, to a large degree, with finger-pointing, blame and targeting sectors as the villains of the piece. It struck me when the citizens' assembly report was being presented to Members in the audiovisual room that the emphasis in its work was on listening to those whose behaviour has to be changed in a respectful way and trying to build collaborative mechanisms where people can understand what needs to change, not to divide communities but to unite them in taking on this challenge. It was a strong message to come from those who had attended the citizens' assembly and sat through all its deliberations.

We need to go much further in getting a framework where there is recognition and reward for those we hope and expect to make changes. We have been far too slow to articulate a carbon-farming context where people can see there is a viable living in the traditional way of life, with money coming not only from production of high quality food but also from the way in which they manage the resource at their disposal, most notably land. That is the gap and it is emphasised time and again in this House that our approach to the key sectors is far too diverse. I believe seven Departments and 23 public bodies each has part of the brief for addressing biodiversity loss.

It is difficult to see that as a basis for greater coherence. We must move towards budgetary systems that tell people this is a way in which you can see a viable living for yourself on the land. We must also develop a way to integrate this work. I give a very strong plug for embracing the circular economy as an approach that ought to be at the core of this. The Dutch, who I think are further down the line in many of these areas, have adopted that. The beauty of the circular economy approach is that it looks at the whole supply chain of different sectors from the materials they extract and use, right down to the waste and disposal of products at the end of their life. One can develop, as the Dutch have, a compact for food and other sectors in which you do not point the finger at farmers being accountable for 40% of our carbon budget, as we tend to. You start to look at the food waste we all engage in. It generates probably 5 million tonnes of carbon per year; it is a significant element of the emissions we create. It also looks at our consumption decisions. If we, as a community, were to examine our consumption, our emissions are 75% higher than if we look at our production. There is a narrow focus sometimes in the climate debate, whereas the circular economy debate recognises that our choices as consumers, as well as producers, impact the overall.

The circular economy also has the merit of integrating all of the adverse impacts on the environment, not just carbon emissions. That is where the Minister of State's role in working to restore biodiversity becomes a key pillar of a circular economy approach. The other merit is that it is a problem-solving framework, as opposed to what I think has gained currency, which is setting laws with targets we do not know how we will achieve and then people are berated for failing to reach them. It is a bad context in which to try to bring people with you. The circular economy takes the reverse role. It recognises that everything we do along those supply chains has real impacts, for example, how quickly we discard things, what we do with the materials we discard and how much we recover to reuse in the supply chain instead of putting pressure on these ecosystems which are under such stress. It creates a framework within which all players in a sector can sit down together and address it.

When the Government creates a framework for forestry or whatever, we should not regard significant private investors wanting to be part of that as some way hostile to our objectives. If we do not change the framework in which major companies make investments and we see it being channelled into frameworks we have established, we will be only working at the fringes of the challenge. There is an appetite among industry to make changes to recognise that biodiversity must be restored and that we are not treating nature correctly. Sometimes, listening to the debate in this House, it is said that big business should not be involved in any of these schemes. If big business is not involved in the schemes we are bound to fail to achieve our ambitions.

I look forward to the debate in the committee. It will be quite difficult to tease through the proposals on this matter and find landing zones with feasible policies to bring people with us. That is what we must try to do as an Oireachtas. I commend the Minister of State for the work he is taking on in this area. He has brought greater shape to our thinking about it. I hope that the recognition of the biodiversity crisis will see budgetary frameworks changing to help him to achieve some of the things which are now so important.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I commend the Minister of State for quite a positive statement. There has been a new appreciation of nature and our country since the pandemic. Even prior to that, there was a new appreciation for our seas, land, rivers, streams, mountains, beautiful parks and surroundings and mountains, which is a very good thing. There are six national parks in Ireland, dotted across almost each corner of the country. I am quite familiar with the Wicklow Mountains National Park. The State made a mistake by not buying Luggala House and the attached 5,000 acres three or four years ago. It was going for a song, essentially. It is a pity that did not happen because it would have been included in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. People can still use the environs, but it would have been a huge addition to the Wicklow Mountains National Park. National parks are accessible for all sorts of activities such as walking and taking in the outstanding beauty and biodiversity. They are hugely significant for our well-being as humans and for animals to cohabitate with everybody else. They are very positive.

The Minister of State's statement was very good from the outset. I hope things can improve. There are enormous challenges regarding not only our national parks but nature as well. Other Deputies have spoken about invasive species. Rhododendron is a huge issue, particularly around Killarney and in other national parks. Resources must be put in to curtail it. If it is not curtailed, it will curtail nature. I am glad investment is being made in that regard. The Minister of State touched on the European Court of Justice and the number of issues around special areas of conservation, SAC, and some of the breaches. I understand that was from 2019 but that has been addressed, to a certain degree, which is welcome.

I am quite passionate about issues around walking trails and waymarked walks in Ireland. We have some of the most extensive waymarked walks in Europe. A huge amount of people come from all over the world for these waymarked walks. They traverse the whole country and go into small villages which most people would probably not visit if it was not for the walks. They bring a huge amount of chances to meet people, see villages and have experiences they normally would not if they were in the car, etc. We should use our resources more and make better use of waymarked walks; they are under-used. The good thing about Ireland is that most of these waymarked walks go through people's land. There is a good sense of right of way, which is brilliant. They need to be developed more, particularly wilderness huts, of which there are very few. There are a few in Ballincroy and in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. I do not think there are any in the Connemara or Burren National Parks. There should be more of them. They are very eco-friendly. People camp, but wilderness camps are self-sufficient and people can sleep the night in a national park, which is a fantastic experience if you can do it. It is very positive. If the Minister of State could get rid of midgies at this time of year, I would vote for him for El Presidente.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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It is the ticks you want to watch out for, never mind the midgies.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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God, yes. I meant to say that about ticks.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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No flies on Gino but the odd midge, apparently.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Yes, the odd midge. No ticks-----

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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No ticks or flies around here.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----but we always have a lot of flies.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I met recently with an ecologist I know who works very closely with developers as part of her role. She gave me a very simple message, and I think it is one the Minister of State will appreciate. We are just gone three years in government. We spend a lot of time up against the coalface and sometimes we do not get to see the road we have travelled. The ecologist gave me a very simple message. She said, "Keep at it - it is working." That was a good message to hear. She said it in the context of the work she does with developers to develop planning permissions. She said not so long ago that biodiversity provisions within a plan or an application or treatments of sustainable drainage - the sustainable drainage systems, SuDS, and so on - would have been very peripheral, very last-minute and just tacked on to the end as an afterthought. She said there has been a sea change whereby developers are now engaging with her proactively and, before they put the planning permission in, ask what to do about SuDS in the development and what to do to make sure there is no net loss of biodiversity over the course of the development. It was a good message to hear. We do not often hear the positive messages. "Keep at it - it is working."

That message applies to the Minister of State's work in the NPWS. There has been a sea change in the organisation since the formation of this Government and, in particular, since the Minister of State took the Ministry and brought a real impetus and focus to that role on the need to reform and expand the NPWS. There is no doubt but that the job of work we have in front of us is very substantial. Notwithstanding what my colleague, Deputy Bruton, said earlier, there is a worry that this can be expressed too bleakly or that people can be lost by our outlining what is in fact the reality of the situation. So many of our bird species, fish species and native plants are in serious danger. As I have said before, there is no comeback from extinction. This decline needs to be halted because we need, as I think all generations want to do, to hand on what we have received to the next generation in good order. That has to be a principle for us. In fact, it is a principle of sustainable development that one provides for the needs of this generation without inhibiting the needs of future generations to be able to provide for those needs.

That returns me to something I often talk about, that is, the insufficiency of things like GDP to fully measure what is good within our economy and the fact that things like GDP and how they have been constituted in our current iteration of capitalism, that late-stage neo-capitalism, do not pay any attention to the fact that that economic model is world-eating. We pay no attention to the four capitals, including our social capital, human capital and, in particular, natural capital. GDP is blind to that. It does not care how many forests we plough up; it only really cares about how many rolls of toilet paper, toothpicks, matches or whatever else are sold. We therefore have a job of work to do in recasting our whole view of society.

The NPWS is extremely important. It is a figurehead for nature movements and there are so many projects. The Minister of State has done a huge job of work in attracting more funding into it. We still have to address the fact that it has been historically understaffed and under-provided for in terms of the wealth of expertise and knowledge available to do it, and there has been an issue around the funding of staffing. I know a number of people who signed on to become rangers because they love nature and then for financial reasons felt they had to move elsewhere with their considerable talents, expertise and qualifications. There were other outlets that would allow them to get their mortgage, raise their family, pay for schoolbooks - all those things that need to be done. That needs to be addressed. The skills deficit or the availability of skills and this piece of workforce planning need to be addressed as well. That was another message the ecologist I mentioned at the start gave me. I suppose it was a less positive one, although there are positives in it as well. She said there is more and more need for people with these skills. She said she has to turn down work, that she is absolutely flat out. However, there is no place in Ireland that trains for those skills. I think Birmingham is the closest place where you can get that specific skill set. We are going to need those skills not just in the NPWS but across society, whether ecologists, hydromorphologists or the fellas who know how to work the diggers to set up the leaky dams. We have to factor in for all the skills related to the restoration of our wetlands and bogs, our annexe 1 habitats. We have to get out there and tell people there are jobs here in the same way we are trying to do with renewables, retrofitting and installation of solar. We are telling people there are jobs here for the coming decades and they will be good jobs. We need to do the same for jobs in nature because our response to the climate crisis and the biodiversity crisis must be layered one on top of the other.

Going back to the idea of keeping at it because we are making a difference, I was very heartened by the vote last night on the nature restoration law. I demur from what Deputy Bruton said earlier. I do not think there were people finger-pointing in the debate. I think there was a narrative created that wanted somebody to finger-point. I do not think that is what was at play at all. We discussed the scale of the challenge posed by the nature restoration law and the need for the multi-annual financial framework that will have to underpin it if we are in any way serious about it. The more we have talked through it, the more people have seen that this is an absolute necessity. It is so interesting to see the likes of Nestlé, which would not necessarily be expected to line up behind the nature restoration law, coming out and very strongly making the call in tandem with all the scientists and environmentalists. It was unusual to see those voices line up in support of the nature restoration law. One would expect the Greens to be fully behind the nature restoration law but it was interesting yesterday evening to see Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, which represent three of the large voting blocks in the European Parliament, voice support for the law. That was significant. Our colleague, Deputy Leddin, tweeted about it. I looked at quote-tweets of his tweet. They appear in a number of languages. The Germans paid attention to what happened here yesterday evening, as did the French. It was a significant vote. "We are making a difference - keep at it."

All these things are important. We could give chapter and verse on all the habitats we need to redevelop. I have talked before about shifting baseline syndrome. It would be a really interesting social history project, before we lose the knowledge of our older people, for them to be interviewed and for us to write down those interviews. I refer to those people who can remember the 1930s and 1940s and what our wildlife was like then. As I said, my boys do not have that experience. They have not seen the salmon shoaling. They will never hear the cuckoo call in the south east. That would be an interesting social project for us to take on.

I wanted to touch briefly on the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee with Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, this morning. It was a difficult meeting for the representatives who were there. There is no doubt but that there are issues around corporate governance. The Minister had to step in and take a strong stand on it and those issues had to be resolved. There was a tension in the room because the IFI representatives were telling us the body has 320 staff but needs 520. I agree with them. It absolutely does.

The role it performs is complementary to the role the NPWS performs. The central point we were making then - and I know about the work the Minister of State has done around reviewing the NPWS - was that if a body is making the case for a 61% increase in its staffing function, then it has to be able to stand over the corporate governance, because as overseers of the public purse we have to be sure the money is well spent.

It presents us with the broader issue that we have to get serious about how we fund nature. We have to understand that our economy depends on our ecology, and that one is the subset of the other. We often understand it the wrong way around. If we are serious about addressing issues of climate change and biodiversity loss and if we are serious about issues of nature restoration, then we had better get serious about funding it. That includes providing funding for the landowners. If people are being encouraged to manage their land in a particular way, then they need to be funded for it but it is also about funding those oversight bodies like the NPWS and IFI to make sure that works.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to again speak on this important subject matter. Yesterday when I spoke about this issue, we were talking about farmers, the protection of farmers and how the communication to farmers on what has been going on has been poor. We talk about climate action and the measures we are taking to try to deal with it to reach our targets but we have a huge opportunity with our public transport, rail networks and the extension of the western rail corridor north from Athenry to Claremorris. We have business people who want to carry their goods by rail freight rather than having trucks on the road. I plead with the Government to make the findings of the all-island rail review available as quickly as possible because a project like that is in a region which needs development. Second, it will join up Ballina, Westport, Castlebar, Tuam, Claremorris, Ennis, Limerick, Cork, the Port of Waterford and Shannon Foynes Port. We do not need to have the stamp of approval from the Northern Ireland Executive in order to do that. We need its input on other projects we want to do, however.

The Government needs to protect the line north from Claremorris to Collooney for future rail, rather than handing it away to put a greenway on it. The greenway can be accommodated alongside it. I was involved in a campaign on the western rail corridor for the past ten years and people wanted to put a greenway on the railway line. Had that happened, we would not be able to achieve the connectivity north from Athenry. I took the train to Dublin last week and at Athenry station, at least 35 people got on the train. It is a success story and we need to keep that going. That is one way of helping us with our climate action.

With our buildings and the retrofitting of our homes, there is a serious lack of resources, not money from the Government, for people to do the work. That is something we will have to deal with as we build up our resources. Training people in the area of retrofitting and making sure we get our houses up to a standard that is acceptable will also be important. We also need to encourage more the refurbishment of existing vacant properties, on which the Government has taken advice and our proposals on board, and the Croí Cónaithe vacant property refurbishment grant is a serious support for these houses that can come back into use. This is a carbon saving because we are not building from scratch. All of these are good things.

The one thing I will say about the rewetting and restoration of the land is as follows. We must enshrine in the legislation that private lands will not be rewetted, unless a farmer voluntarily wants to do it and unless there is a scheme of support in place for that farmer that will not cease with the change of a Minister or a Government. We can bring all of this to a successful conclusion but there are huge challenges and we have to deal with them, and I know we will. Opposition parties and Deputies are not here just to oppose things, or at least I am certainly not. I am here to be constructive. We have a lot of engagement to do with farmers. When I look at Bord na Móna and what it is going to do, I have serious concerns, which we talked about yesterday, about the farmers adjacent to that huge rewetting area. How will that be done from an engineering point of view?

A Deputy was talking earlier about ecologists and all the expertise we are lacking in this country. For example, I do not know how many planning authorities have an ecologist working for them. We have to move with the times. As this is the agenda, we have to put in place the programmes where we get people to qualify in these professions and we must do it in our colleges and universities as a matter of urgency. That is something we could do very handily.

That is why I say there is huge potential in everything we are doing in climate action. There are things that will have real benefit to people right here and now and there are long-term benefits. The communication on what we are doing needs to be better and we need to make decisions and get the implementation plans enacted as quickly as possible. Going back to the western rail corridor, when we were putting a proposal before the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, last year, over 120 Deputies and Senators across the entire Oireachtas, from every party, supported it. I acknowledge the fact that the Green Party, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and all Independents all supported it. It is great when we see that happening and we must get that kind of momentum and motivation going for other projects like this, and for other climate action measures we need to take. However, we need to do it in a fair and balanced way and bring people along with us.

I know the Minister of State and the Government will be doing that but the way the rewetting and the nature restoration law were communicated left a lot of question marks where people choose to fill the voids with information that might not have been entirely correct. I look forward to working with the Minister of State and the Government to see how we can protect and support farmers in anything we are doing. They are the custodians of the land and are the people who will be producing food that we will need into the future. With a growing population, we need to make sure we are doing that to the highest quality and the best standards we can. I know well the farmers will do it; there is no doubt about that. It is a question of whether they will have the supports to make the changes that are necessary.

Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party)
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I am sharing time with Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. The Ceann Comhairle has been around this House a lot longer than I have, but it is fair to say that what we saw last night was quite a rare and remarkable thing. We saw Members across the floor of this House come together and vote together, overwhelmingly, for the nature restoration law. That is something that needs to be acknowledged. We saw last night a political consensus on the importance of restoring nature. If only we could find that consensus with respect to so many other challenges we have. We sent a strong signal to Europe ahead of the plenary vote on the nature restoration law next week.

I commend Government and Opposition colleagues. I see Deputy O'Rourke, my colleague on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action and I know he has led in this area within his party, as he always does. I also commend Deputies Fitzmaurice, Harkin and McNamara, who brought the original motion, because it was a debate worth having.

Most importantly, I want to commend the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. It seems that any debate in which he is involved is respectful and that is a credit to him and his approach to debate and working with others across politics. The result last night was the output of that non-adversarial approach. It was unique and the Minister of State is unique. He loves his brief. He is a man who loves nature. He is particularly suited to his brief. I was listening in my office to him speak about eagles, ospreys, natterjacks and so much more in the earlier part of the debate. We cannot but get from the Minister of State the infectious enthusiasm he has for nature. Not only does he love his role but he is determined to make progress, and he is doing so. I do not need to repeat what was in his statement but it is remarkable just what has been achieved in recent years in turning the ship. We are going in the right direction. We are coming from a very bad place but so much has been done and we have a lot more to do. I commend everybody for the positive politics on display.

I want to pick up on one point with respect to the National Parks and Wildlife Service. In that organisation there are hundreds of staff who love nature just as much as the Minister of State. They are very special people. They are highly qualified in all cases and they work extremely hard. They are probably not rewarded sufficiently for the work they do. They do these jobs because they love them. To some extent, the State is taking advantage of these people because they will do these jobs anyway. I do not think it is fair that remuneration generally for these great people is not as high it should be.

Deputy Bruton mentioned that the committee I chair will take on the report of the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss in the autumn. Deputy O'Sullivan will speak after me and he is also a member of the committee. We must figure out how to achieve political consensus on the 159 recommendations of the citizens' assembly. That will not be easy. We will have to develop political positions and ultimately come to a conclusion. I hope that come Christmas this year when our work is concluded, we will have achieved a substantial political consensus. The debates in the House today and last night should inspire us to achieve this political consensus. I will now cede time to Deputy O'Sullivan.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We will get the view from west Cork.

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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We will keep the love-in going for the Minister of State.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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Why not?

Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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I wholeheartedly agree with Deputy Leddin's comments on what the Minister of State has achieved. Deputy Leddin spent his entire statement speaking about how great the Minister of State is. I will not do that. These are statements on progress in the National Parks and Wildlife Service and, by God, there has been incredible progress in the organisation. I know it is an organisation in which staff morale was pretty low. It was coming from a very low base. People were frustrated. Wildlife enthusiasts were frustrated with the response of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, particularly when pointing out habitat destruction or wildlife crime. It was pretty bad but it has been absolutely transformed. We are not yet where we need to be but the transformation is visible. We can see this positivity creeping back into the organisation, even among wildlife enthusiasts. This change is happening.

Staffing numbers are visibly increasing. We can see it happening in front of our eyes. I can see it in west Cork, as the Ceann Comhairle pointed out, and Deputy Leddin would be disappointed if I did not mention it. We had a situation where we had one ranger covering a vast area. Now it has been split up into three or four different sections and there is a team working there. It is making the response times much better. Clonakilty and that area now has its own ranger. Bandon and its surrounding area has its own ranger. The area west of Rosscarbery has its own ranger. We all know them. We all have their contact details. The response is much better. A couple of weeks ago, a wild buzzard was found dead on the side of the road. It was reported to me straight away. I was straight onto the ranger. Within days there was a toxicology report. Unfortunately, a rodenticide was found in the buzzard. People had given up reporting such occurrences. They did not bother because they would not get a response. This is great. We just have to keep going in this direction. We have to keep fighting.

The attitude of the NPWS towards nature restoration projects and biodiversity projects has completely changed. The Minister of State stood on Clogheen Marsh with me and a group which on two or three occasions had tried to start a campaign for a nature reserve in Clogheen. It collapsed every time because of a lack of interest from the NPWS. The attitude has changed completely. Now we have a year of survey work done. We are looking at the next phase of the project, which is putting in bird hides. This was unthinkable previously. It is changing and we just need to keep the momentum going. There is great interest in wildlife but, unfortunately, massive degradation and loss of habitat is still happening. Unfortunately, wildlife and biodiversity are not in a good place in Ireland and we cannot deny it. It is very easy to pat ourselves on the back and say we are doing a great job. Unfortunately, years of neglect have meant that we are in a bad place and we have a lot to respond to.

I have the perfect example of projects that can make a difference. I constantly refer to Annagh Marsh on the Mullet Peninsula in Mayo. I visited it one June. I could not hear myself think with the sound of skylarks singing. There were snipe on every lamppost calling and singing. It was a joy to behold. We can have this throughout Ireland. I urge the NPWS to go that step further and where there are approaches made for purchasing or taking into control land that would be suitable for biodiversity projects, restoration, rewilding or letting places as they are for wildlife, there should be an open attitude towards them.

I must pick up on what Deputy Leddin said about remuneration and pay. For ecologists especially, it is quite a competitive market. There is no shortage of work. There is a lot of money in renewable energy and surveying sites for wind and solar energy. There is big money in it. It is very hard for the State to compete with it. Unless we do so, we will lose out on the ecologists who are needed to run the NPWS. We need a scheme to ensure we can attract in the best and attract nature lovers.

I am looking forward to working on the citizens' assembly report. There should be a stand-alone Minister with responsibility for biodiversity because of where we have gone to in Ireland in terms of the state of nature. We also need a stand-alone committee. I have often said that biodiversity gets caught between housing, climate action and agriculture. It keeps getting confused and diluted. There has been incredible progress with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is very much down to the Minister of State and his hands-on approach and the team he has with him, with which I am very familiar. They have a real passion for nature. Some of them even have cameras in their own nest boxes which is cool.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I very much welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important matter and return attention to the much-needed reform of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which was started just over a year ago following the publication of three reports which we discussed at the time. I pay tribute to the Minister of State. It is not a love-in but I pay tribute in particular to his thanks and gratitude for the general operatives on the ground, who are the rangers and the scientific staff.

He put it in that format, paying tribute first to the general operatives. I wish more Ministers and local authorities would realise the value of general operatives on the ground, call them in and listen to them. I certainly wish that would happen in the city council and county council because management has much to learn.

Deputy Bruton stated he has a concern that people will be overwhelmed by the magnitude of this. I have no such concern. The citizens' assembly, which put forward 159 recommendations, stated: "The number of recommendations speaks to the scale and breadth of the problem of biodiversity loss in Ireland. It also represents the extent of the material presented to the Assembly." Most important, the assembly went on to state that it shows the "fundamental disappointment in the capacity demonstrated by the State to coherently and deliberately tackle biodiversity loss." It went on to give the stark figures and so on. It repeated emphasised that, "[a]s an Assembly it was frustrating to listen to this litany of shortcomings and failures." I do not have the same concerns as Deputy Bruton. I have serious concerns in respect of the Government, what it has taken the Minister of State personally to get this far, with the Opposition pushing with some of his colleagues. I acknowledge that.

Let us look briefly at from where we came. In 2002, a strategic action plan. There was a review by Dr. Jane Stout and Dr. Micheál Ó Cinnéide, as well as another document, entitled Reflect and Renew. All of that lead into actions. What did the article or study by Dr. Ó Cinnéide tell us? It referred to a harrowing account of the neglect by successive governments towards meaningful action on biodiversity loss in a political system that did not appear to value nature and biodiversity. That is where we are at. I gave the context for this a few days ago when we were talking about the nature restoration law. I worry about leadership not from the Minister of State, but from the Government and the many sides of its mouth from which it is capable of speaking. Although the result of the vote last night was positive and welcome, at European level there are members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as well as a member of Sinn Féin, doing the complete opposite rather than working together as they are constantly lecturing us to do.

As regards the three reports, it was welcome at the time that the action plan took on board most of the recommendations. I note from the progress tracker that of the 30 actions that were to be completed by the end of June, a very welcome 20 have been completed and implemented. Six were on track. There were three actions that were not started and they are of concern because one of them was the completion of the draft risk register and the workforce plans. Although the Minister of State made the point in his remarks that there has been a welcome increase in staffing, it is difficult for me to put that in perspective without seeing it in context and a workforce plan. Two other actions had not been acted upon or were in the course of being acted upon but, in the interest of brevity, I will not go into them. One action has not been acted upon and it is particularly worrying. It had a target completion date of June 2022 and it has not started. It states, "Government may also wish to consider the wider issue of the roles and functions of public bodies in relation to biodiversity and nature at this juncture." That is the critical one. If we look the local authorities, Galway County Council only recently got a biodiversity officer. The city council got one a couple of months ago. We passed a draft biodiversity plan in my time on the council and I am gone from it since 2016. Lip service has been paid at local level to biodiversity, notwithstanding the tremendous work being done on the ground by various members of Galway city and county councils. I am zoning in on management level, where there is a lack of vision and leadership while those on the ground doing the work are crying out for exactly that.

As regards the European Court of Justice and the latest condemnation of Ireland - the Minister of State put it in perspective - on 29 June the court found that Ireland had breached its obligations under the habitats directive. I know the Minister of State is examining the judgment and states that progress has been made in respect of the judgment, given that it was based on what happened in 2019. When will the State respond to the judgment?

I ask the Minister of State to comment on the actions that have not progressed even though they had a deadline of this year and on the most important one that has not been acted on at all.

As regards the reviews, I welcome the establishment of the agency and the progress that has been made. We had no choice. It took a declaration of a biodiversity and climate change emergency to get action. I understand a report is carried out every six years by the NPWS in respect of biodiversity. Can that be brought back? We are in a crisis. Can it be brought back?

I pay tribute to the Minister of State on his work but it needs to be accompanied by transformative action. Later today, the House will discuss the further militarisation of Europe. We cannot be taking climate change seriously if, at the same time, we are warmongering or part of the warmongers of Europe that go hand in hand.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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There is a significant amount to which I need to reply. If I do not reply on all the queries, I will try to respond to the Deputies at a later point.

I have an announcement that highlights the challenge we face. I am aware of an outbreak of avian influenza at Our Lady's Island tern colony in Wexford. The NPWS and Birdwatch Ireland are working to ensure the effect on this internationally important bird site is minimised. Members of the public should not handle dead or sick birds but, rather, contact a regional veterinary laboratory or ring the avian influenza hotline on (01) 6072512 or, outside office hours, (01) 4928026. We will put those numbers on our social media channels and the NPWS website later.

I thank Deputy O'Rourke for his ongoing leadership on this issue. I recognise the good points he made and the progress we have made to date. He and Deputy Connolly both raised the issue of recommendation 11 in the NPWS report. We are working on the terms of reference for that and making progress on the recommendation. I agree it is critical to look at the role of other bodies in respect of biodiversity. I have been to Girley Bog previously but I am more than happy to go back. It is fabulous place; I loved it.

Deputy Cronin raised the issue of Emo Court. That has been dealt with comprehensively and addressed by me in several replies. The situation was addressed by the OPW and a corrective course of action has been taken in that regard.

Deputies Duncan Smith and Ó Cathasaigh referenced Inland Fisheries Ireland. Notwithstanding the governance issues affecting IFI, we are doing important work with it, particularly in respect of the next river basin management plan on hydromorphology and getting our rivers back into free-flowing status. We appreciate that work. Reference was made to Atlantic salmon in the River Tolka and several Deputies, including Deputy Alan Farrell, referred to Glenasmole. It is a fantastic project and shows what can be done, even in an urban environment, to try to address issues of water quality and the cooling of rivers by using good riparian planting and stabilisation of riverbanks.

Several Deputies raised issues relating to the nature restoration law. There was a good sense of unity regarding where we are now compared with where we were a number of weeks or even months ago in the context of the nature restoration law. That is critical. Whatever happens in the European Parliament next week, it is important that the House has extensively debated the matter, not just yesterday but also in two separate sessions. It puts us in a good place and gets greater understanding out to the public regarding what we are trying to achieve and our aim to work with landowners to achieve these targets. Deputy Alan Farrell referenced areas north of the Liffey, as well as Glenasmole. It is something to which we could give consideration under the river basin management plan.

Several Deputies raised the issue of skills and labour shortages. We met the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, last week to discuss these issues. We are very concerned. Some 20 years ago, people who qualified from college probably would not have found much work in this country.

What we can say very clearly now is that there are decades of work ahead. We need armies of people, both qualified professionals and also people on the ground, to carry out a lot of the practical conservation work such as invasive species removal. We will work with Minister Harris's team to try to develop a plan relating to that. Also, on the issue of conservation of marine and marine protected areas, the legislation for that will be due in September, I hope. Just to note that our special protection areas, SPAs, or special areas of conservation, SAC, marine designations have gone from approximately 2.4% to 8.2%. We are due to go beyond 10% so we are well on track regarding that.

Deputy Ó Murchú raised issues of urban trees and made very good points on that and again, Article 6 of the nature restoration regulation will deal with urban environments so when we get to the point of doing our nature restoration plan there is a fantastic opportunity to address issues of urban biodiversity. He also mentioned the Cooley Mountains and tourism and I agree wholeheartedly. I visited there on a number of occasions. It is a really beautiful part of the country and there is a lot of really good work going on in terms of conservation grazing and dealing with bracken and other invasive species up there. There are fantastic landowners working right across the Cooleys and they are great people.

Deputy Whitmore raised the issue of staffing and the spend in the NPWS. Certainly, what I outlined in my opening speech has moved us in a positive trajectory but I agree we could always use more. There is the issue of capacity to spend as we slowly ramp up the work of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. What was probably not mentioned in her comments were the LIFE projects and other programmes that were brought in to try to deal with that. There are issues of rhododendrons and Deputy Whitmore talked about the ban of the sale of them from garden centres. That is something we could look at in the invasive species management plan. It is mostly rhododendron ponticum that was planted around estates and that is why it ended up in the national parks in the first place. We are making significant progress regarding that. On deer populations, the deer management forum is working there are we are doing some very good work on that.

Finally, in the time I have remaining, Deputy Bruton mentioned the circular economy. Absolutely, to address resource use as a driver of biodiversity loss is critically important and I see a positive role for businesses and corporates in this. We are partnering with a number of then, most notable Intel in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. Again, I thank Deputy Gino Kenny, for his comments particularly regarding walking trails. We want people to go out and enjoy nature, to be part of it, and there is some really good work out there with Leave No Trace and others. Deputies Leddin and Christopher O'Sullivan raised the important work that will be ahead of their committee relating to the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss and I wish them well with that. Finally, I thank Deputy Catherine Connolly for raising the issues of the general operatives and the staff. Some of the work I have seen these people do is just remarkable and again I cannot reiterate enough the gratitude I have because those are the people on the ground who are carrying out the measures we need to ensure our parks are enjoyed by the millions of people who use them.

In closing, to reflect on yesterday's debate on the nature restoration regulation and today's statements on the National Parks and Wildlife Service I recall the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken". We are at a point of divergence:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Nature and society are at such a crossroads and the road we need to take is very clear. That is the path of lending nature a hand so that it continues to lend us both. We are the first generation who has all the metrics to tell us what we need to do for nature. We are the last generation who can do anything about it and that is really sobering. As a reformed, reset, and well-resourced National Parks and Wildlife Service is our national vehicle for conservation, its mission to protect nature is a call to duty for Government, community and corporate alike. There is no deal that can be struck with nature to stop its decline. She does not negotiate. There is, however, a deal we can strike with ourselves to make the change and to punctuate the beginning of the end of negative impacts for nature. There is a need not to be a zero-sum game. Debates are sometimes simplified into the binary of what we can and cannot do. I prefer to talk in terms of what can be done. It is not always about stopping one thing to do another. It is perhaps mostly about doing that one thing differently, doing it in a way that is actually sustainable and doing it in a way that nature meant it to be done in the first place. As we mark the first anniversary of the reform of the National Parks and Wildlife Service I am indeed happy to report that it is either on or ahead of schedule on most of the milestones set for it.

I say hello to my children Kitty and Stephen, and Jennie my wife, with the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service's laser focus from now on must be serving the nature agenda, for which it was established, and delivering on our goals for nature. It must continue to ask itself if everything it undertakes is aimed exclusively at a positive for nature. It has my vote of absolute confidence and to see it up close every day is incredibly impressive as it addresses its mission. Nothing good will happen for nature until change is made. I hope Deputies will agree that we are making, and will continue to make, that change. We all need to be on board in this great project to restore and protect nature. It is not just the job of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, it is a burden and a duty we all must share.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Gabhaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire Stáit.