Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and his officials, Mr. Alan Moore and Mr. Niall Finan of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, biodiversity policy unit, to the committee. This meeting has been convened to consider the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was referred to the committee by the Dáil. I thank the Minister of State for the accompanying documents issued to us in advance. I invite him to make his opening statement and tell us all about the Nagoya Protocol and the benefits it will bring for biodiversity.