Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will start with the electoral reform Bill, which the committee is well familiar with, having given so much time and commitment towards the pre-legislative scrutiny on it. I thank the Chairman and the committee for the fantastic work and input into that. I have been following its progress over the past weeks. We have a number of sessions left and I look forward to that. It has been very productive and very useful in that regard. The establishment of an electoral commission later this year is a significant piece of reform within the programme for Government.

On heritage, I will quickly outline a number of the key commitments in the programme for Government on the built and natural heritage and national monuments. The review of the National Parks and Wildlife Service is ongoing. It is headed up by Professor Jane Stout and Dr. Mícheál Ó Cinnéide. It has been really good so far and there has been a huge amount of public interest in it. We are very confident that later this year, we will have the recommendations of that review process to help build a fit-for-purpose National Parks and Wildlife Service, and to provide the additional resources it needs to carry out its big job of work for nature.

We are doing significant work through Waterways Ireland and we are working with the Northern Ireland Executive to deliver a flagship cross-Border Ulster Canal project. Again, we will have some significant announcements in that regard in due course. This is a shared island initiative in the programme for Government.

The biodiversity data collection is critical to what we are doing both in marine and on land. There is ongoing work there through the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, process and the work with the National Biodiversity Data Centre. We are working on a wildlife (amendment) Bill and wildlife legislation strengthening natural heritage legislation, including legislation later this year, hopefully, for hedgerows and a biodiversity Bill that will come with the wildlife (amendment) Bill. We are working on issues around our peatlands and especially with the cross-departmental commitments in the programme for Government regarding maximising the benefits for biodiversity. The national peatlands strategy implementation group provided updates to me on peatland actions within the programme for Government.

Quite a significant amount of work will overlap within our Department. It is fantastic that the heritage remit is now with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage because there are significant cross synergies between the three ministries, especially around the establishment of specific officer roles within local authorities, additional heritage supports, conservation and repurposing officers, and architects. This is something we are keen to progress also.

We have significant additional funding for built heritage, which is a key commitment within the programme for Government, outlining and supporting the work of the Town Centre First initiative, being led by the Minister of State, Deputy Burke.

The built heritage investment scheme has brought in a doubling of the funding this year, and we will announce the historic structures fund and other funding streams later in the year. Added to that we will have a new national monuments Bill later this year. We are establishing a wildlife crime unit, which was not specifically outlined in the programme for Government but is certainly something that has long been sought and will be of huge benefit.

I am working closely with the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, on the public consultation on the marine protected areas, and the river basin management planning process, as he has outlined, on the water side of things.

Finally, I am in discussions with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine around the next Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, strategic plan. As the committee will see, there is quite a comprehensive piece of work being undertaken in the heritage section. It will certainly involve the requirement of additional resources, but we are certainly doing fantastic work across the Department and, as I said, across the three Ministries from which there has been great support on, in particular, the biodiversity agenda.