Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and everybody present. Many of the questions have been asked. On the rights of nature, it is important to point out that, generally, the direction of travel at international level is this way but that voters are usually well ahead of the politicians. Senator Dooley was talking about polling but the fact that one has the citizens' assembly and that it was a very broad and well represented group of people, but also that the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, data shows that there is no urban-rural divide and that people are generally united in their concern for both climate and biodiversity. It is important to say that. If there were to rights of nature, we can trust that the debate would be thrashed out but that people would be well considered in their decision-making in that. The Irish people surprise us much of the time with regard to their deeply-considered positions.

The questions I have for the panel are around accountability, accountability at State level and where we can make improvements on that. I do not want any member of the panel to talk to the specifics of a case but I give the example of Emo Court where the OPW is the body responsible for it and where bats and a bat roost was deliberately damaged. Yet another arm or wing of the State, being the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Departments of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage and of the Environment did not take a case, even though it was an Annex IV for species under the habitats directive. How can we prevent those types of things happening or move it, whether it is a political thing where one State agency does not want to be seen taking case against another? How do we move to ensure that the independent decision-making is taking place and that that leadership is flowing from the top down with regard to compliance with the law? There are other examples other than Emo Court and I do not wish any of our guests to speak specifically to that, but it is just an example of where we have such a situation. I submitted a parliamentary question and there has not been a single case taken by the State against another arm of the State with regard to compliance under the habitats directive. I would be interested to hear our guests views on that question.

My other question is around the remits of some of the semi-State bodies, such as Bord na Móna and Coillte, where these are solely commercial- and profit-oriented. I know that Senator Higgins has legislation on the books in the Seanad but we should look at the legal mandates for these two organisations, given that they control approximately 8% of the land in Ireland. I would be interested to hear the views of our panellists on that issue also.

Touching on the point of constitutional changes and where we, as a society, put our values, I am very interested to hear how we enforce the laws we already have, building on what Professor Ryall has already said earlier.