Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Citizens' Assembly Report on Biodiversity Loss: Discussion (Resumed)

Dr. Eimear Cotter:

That is not what we do as an organisation. We have done extensive work to understand what the pressures are on our water environment, and there are multiple pressures.

The most significant pressure is agriculture. It is impacting on 1,000 water bodies. That is a fact; that is the data. It is what the science is saying. However, that is not the only pressure. There are physical changes to our water environment such as draining, dredging, channelisation, which are the second most significant pressure, impacting 450 water bodies.