Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I would see biodiversity and climate change adaptation and mitigation as tied together. I am quite nervous that in the rush to address climate change, we are going to do it through technological adaptations and technological innovations, while biodiversity always tends to be the poor cousin and can get forgotten. It is going to be very important for us to hardwire biodiversity into everything we do, whether it is in this particular Bill or in the climate plans of the councils.

In the rolling out of the work on biodiversity, the councils have not been funded to do this properly. Where would Professor Buckley see as the best place for us to invest to ensure that the issues of biodiversity are managed properly? Is it at a council level or is it at a higher level, looking at research and mapping? Is it a case of being able to point to a document that states, for example, this seagrass will hold this much carbon, and if we manage to do this, it is the equivalent of taking 20,000 cars off the road? If not, is it going to be a jigsaw of all the different things we need to address to make sure we do this properly?