Mr. Pádraic Fogarty:

I sincerely thank members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action for the invitation to address them. It is nearly two years since the Dáil declared a climate and biodiversity emergency and my message to the committee today is that the collapse of our biodiversity is real, that it is happening and that it matters. While many of us looked on in horror at the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in 2019, we can sometimes forget that Ireland is perhaps the most deforested country in the world. Having once been 80% deciduous oak woodland, our native forests have been reduced to sorry fragments that extend to no more than 2% of our land area. What was not forest was wetlands and bogs but these too have been remorselessly exploited so that today fewer than 1% of the midlands' bogs are still growing while across the uplands and the west of Ireland, fewer than one third of these peatlands remain what is termed "suitable for conservation". Even these areas have been largely denuded of their wildlife due to fires and overgrazing.

Our farmland has been utterly transformed in recent decades such that most fields are practically devoid of life while even the ancient system of hedgerows is vanishing due to neglect and outright destruction. Last month, BirdWatch Ireland and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Northern Ireland reported that an incredible two thirds of all our bird species are heading toward extinction. This is a frightening figure. Our waterways are mostly polluted by farm run-off and under-treated human sewage. In fact, we continue to pour completely untreated sewage into our surroundings from 35 towns and villages in Ireland. At sea, Ireland has a lamentable reputation for overfishing marine life while we continue to lose biodiversity in the mere 2% of our seas that currently fall within protected areas. It is a dire state of affairs when the majority of the fishing boats around Ireland scarcely even catch fish any more and must make do with crabs and lobsters due to the collapse of the ocean ecosystem. Healthy ecosystems are not just nice to have, they are central to the production of food, the availability of clean water, the stability of our climate as well as our mental and physical health. Healthy, functioning ecosystems are essential to our very survival yet we have destroyed them. We should be doing better.

Successive Governments have signed up to a raft of legislation to protect biodiversity and water quality yet a recent report from the National Biodiversity Forum lambasted the State as "The biggest transgressor of environmental law". As legislators, member play a key role in addressing this crisis. The good news is that the solutions are to hand, namely, farming in a way that is close to nature, ending overfishing and creating well-protected marine protected areas, investing in wastewater infrastructure, reintroducing species we have driven to extinction and rewilding our rivers and uplands so forests and peatlands are restored. We must remove perverse subsidies which promote the destruction of nature and reform laws that are no longer fit for addressing the challenges we face. For instance, the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, which results in so much damage to our river systems, must be looked at. We need a new biodiversity Act that will put our biodiversity action plan on a legal footing. Nature restoration is climate action. Healthy bogs, farmland and oceans all store and sequester carbon. It is also people action as it creates employment, diversifies economic opportunity strengthening communities and reducing inequalities.

The challenge before us is daunting. Quite frankly, our children face a frightening future. As legislators right now, members are making key decisions that will shape that future. I urge them to act with the level of urgency this crisis requires. We have no excuses. I firmly believe restoring nature to our island could be the most wonderful project for bringing our communities together. We are, after all, a part of nature but the time for action is now.