Francis Noel Duffy (Dublin South West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on the great strides he has made as a Green Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform and for the updates today. Two of my questions relate to the recent discussion we had here in the committee with the Heritage Council, with respect to the national policy on architecture, which the Deputy mentioned already. The others relate to the Minister of State's announcement yesterday and the NPWS farm plan scheme. Yesterday, the Minister of State's Department announced an increase in funding to €1.5 million for the local biodiversity action fund for 2022, which I understand is a 300% increase on 2019, which is extremely welcome and will assist local authorities in the implementation and funding for actions in the biodiversity action plan.

However, we know that, ultimately, local authorities need more staff and capacity to be able to execute these projects properly. While in many local authorities, heritage officers are currently stepping in for biodiversity officers, from my experience of working with heritage officers, they are already working beyond capacity in terms of managing heritage. This added workload is not sustainable. Therefore, will the Minister of State give an indication of when all local authorities will be equipped with biodiversity officers, including my local authority of South Dublin County Council, which is still without one?

How many local authorities have received funding under the local authority biodiversity scheme operated by the NPWS?

In the context of reducing energy emissions in our built environment, which is a key aim of the national policy on architecture, NPA, when can we expect the NPA to be published? I know that was talked about earlier but it would be interesting to know if the Department has a deadline for that and I would like to know if that draft is available to us. Will the final NPA document contain a definitive proposal for a national built environment research body, as stated in the Places for People document, which emerged following a public consultation on the NPA? If so, has the Department considered what form this is likely to take? Will the NPWS farm plan scheme be expanded in 2022?