Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am not a member of the committee, but when I saw BirdWatch Ireland's presentation I wanted to be present. It is a hugely important review of where we are in this country. As Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell said, our bird populations are the canary in the mine where our wider environmental challenges are concerned. This indicator screams that there is a huge problem in our sea areas, forests, wetlands, urban areas and farmland. A bleak but very important picture has been portrayed here today. I thank the witnesses for coming in and providing it.

Regarding how we can turn this around, I was watching earlier questions on the monitor. The response to climate change has to be co-ordinated with the response to the biodiversity crisis. The Joint Committee on Climate Action has highlighted the restoration of wetlands as a means by which we could store carbon. A reduction in the use of pesticides, a return in the insect population, whose decline is one of the hazards the witnesses mentioned, and the resulting increase in soil fertility would also improve the carbon storage capabilities of that farmland. Greater diversity in farming is another measure that the Joint Committee on Climate Action has recommended, because over-reliance on monocultural beef and dairy production at scale is a high-risk farming strategy at this point. They are just two examples. The use of marine protected areas could also have benefits in restoring more natural ecosystems to our sea areas. This would not only be good for bird life but also for the capacity of those seas to store carbon and manage a fast-changing environment.

It is interesting to examine the whole-of-Government climate action plan which was published last week. Action No. 110 calls for mapping land to measure the response to climate change and to biodiversity. The witnesses mentioned the example of Teagasc's map of areas that might be suitable for curlews----