Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their passionate contributions. The all-Ireland pollinator plan and the national biodiversity action plans are key strategies to help us protect and enhance biodiversity across Ireland. I gather from the presentations that the witnesses’ concerns relate to nationwide plans not being necessarily supported by the roll-out of nationwide policies to underpin them. That seems to be in respect of allotments and community gardens. I would love to hear their views on what we could do to counteract that.

I would also like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my own local authority, South Dublin County Council, where the director of services, Teresa Walsh, and her team have been bringing biodiversity to life for many years. Pollinator friendly zone signs can be seen in all of my local parks at this stage, for example, Rathcoole Park, Corkagh Park, Griffeen Valley Park, Lucan Demesne and Waterstown Park. Schools in Clondalkin have recently undertaken the development of gardens, with Coláiste Bríde and St. Mary's in Rowlagh partnering up with both Clondalkin Tidy Towns and the Dodder Valley Action Group to plant trees in their own school gardens. The girls in St. Joseph’s Community College in Lucan have embarked on a fundraising campaign to raise money to develop Rosie's garden there, which is in memory of Sr. Rosario. We have great community gardens and allotments, as Ms Foreman said, in places like Corkagh Park, and the Clondalkin Men's Shed is also using an allotment in Fonthill.

This was a great way to keep people occupied at the time when Covid regulations loosened but people still could not be indoors. Covid and lockdown gave all of us the opportunity to take stock, take a step back and really appreciate nature more. We saw more people than ever using our parks and getting involved in gardening. These are all positives because they are the kinds of things that can have a real and lasting effect when it comes to biodiversity and things like our bee population.

I was particularly interested in what Ms Foreman said around communal rooftop gardens. As she said, like plants themselves, these strategies work best when they come from the ground up. I would be very interested to hear what kinds of strategies and policies we could put in place nationally that would incorporate and allow for communal rooftop gardens to become naturally part of not just the design of buildings but of the community and the culture of all those living in buildings.