Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Yes, briefly. I thank the Minister of State for his response but I am concerned he is putting biodiversity on a comparable level to transport. Biodiversity is part of our environment. It is absolutely entwined with climate. The things we do to improve our biodiversity crisis will help with our climate crisis and vice versa. The Dáil did not declare a transport crisis but it did declare a biodiversity crisis. I am not being flippant but if the Government is now looking at biodiversity in the same way as transport we are in serious trouble and the environment is in serious trouble. I therefore ask the Minister of State to go back to the Minister and his advisors because we cannot silo these issues, we cannot separate them. These issues must be recognised as intertwined, dependent on each other and not akin to an issue such as transport. I ask the Minister of State to go back and have a discussion with the advisors just to ensure we are all on the same page. My assumption was that the Minister was on the same page when it came to importance of including measures within this and addressing biodiversity in parallel and as part of climate action, so I ask that the Government do that.