Dr. Deirdre Lynn:

That was to push the global agenda to be very ambitious. The targets set in the EU biodiversity strategy are the targets set for EU levels. It is 30% of EU land and 30% of EU sea. This does not necessarily translate to the national level. We will need to discuss internally in the National Parks and Wildlife Service how we tackle it. A lot of work is being done on marine protected areas. I hope we will expand the coverage of our marine protected areas considerably. We will also need to have a lot of discussions about terrestrial land. The Deputy may be familiar with some of the EU protected areas. There are special areas of conservation and special protection areas for birds. It does not need to be that level of protection. We can have other systems. We can have contract agreements for example. We could enter into contract agreements with Bord na Móna and other public landowners. There are other effective conservation measures. There are other areas where we could say we are doing X, Y and Z and, therefore, technically we can include it in our figures. We have to work out a lot of this. We have to start making the pledges that will be examined in 2023.

With regard to the 10% that is supposedly strictly protected, these are carbon-rich ecosystems. This means no activity should take place in these areas unless specifically for the conservation of the habitats on the site. We will look at some of our carbon-rich habitats and bog areas and possibly salt marshes. There are some other areas that would be quite carbon rich that we should consider for strict protection.

With regard to targets in legislation, we have our national biodiversity plan. We are trying to get some kind of legislative statutory footing for the biodiversity action plan.

This would at least give it more teeth. We are also seeking to improve the governance of the biodiversity action plan. It is currently overseen by an interdepartmental group but I hope that we may be able to report to a higher level in the next round so that there will be a greater onus on people when we look for progress on actions in the plan because not all of these actions are undertaken by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Many of them are undertaken by our colleagues in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, its forest service, the Environmental Protection Agency and many other Departments. It is very important that there be a little bit more political scrutiny. We also have a watchdog, the National Biodiversity Forum, which is a multi-stakeholder group that oversees the implementation of the plan and makes recommendations to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan. We have increased funding for that forum to make sure that it functions properly, has a functioning secretariat and can really progress and give good recommendations.

On the NORA fund, correct me if I am wrong but the Bord na Móna rehabilitation scheme was originally funded from the climate action fund. It may possibly have been passed over to the NORA fund but the €108 million for the rehabilitation of post-production Bord na Móna peatlands is now being funded by the EU resilience fund. We should all be looking at all of the available funds to ratchet up our restoration agenda.