Mr. Pádraic Fogarty:

I will give two concrete responses. The Deputy asked how can we maximise citizen engagement. One really glaring thing that we could do is recognise that the State is the biggest landowner in the country.

Between them, Coillte and Bord na Móna could own over 10% of the country. There is a lot of land out there that really needs to be rewilded and given over for nature for very practical carbon and biodiversity benefits. Communities should be allowed to basically become custodians of these areas, which they know better than anybody. They can come up with management plans and do the monitoring, and the State can facilitate that. That can also work in marine protected areas.

Another area in which work is already up and running relates to biodiversity action plans. Many local authorities have biodiversity plans. However, we have seen that these plans are frequently not funded or particularly prioritised within the wider work of the local council, so many of the actions do not get very far. People are willing to engage and know what needs to be done. If dedicated funding streams for biodiversity action plans were to be created, much more than what we have at the moment, local authorities would spend that money wisely.