Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A number of contributions concerned Brú na Bóinne national park. It is an incredibly welcome addition to my county and constituency. I have a young family and every weekend we spend time in nature by visiting some of the amenities in my county such as Balrath Woods, Littlewood Forest in Slane or the life project at Girley Bog, which is wonderful. There is also some really positive work happening with the rewilding project at Dunsany Nature Reserve.

A number of contributors have expressed their concern about the model used in terms of the amount of land in pasture and the amount of land that could be in agricultural use. Can the witnesses speak to the priority that will be given to nature in the new national park? The negotiations have been mentioned so please give us a sense of the timeline. I hope, along with my family, friends, neighbours and constituents, to use the national park but nature must be prioritised.

We have a huge job of work to do to restore nature. In the first instance, it should be on State-owned lands as part of that negotiation with nature restoration law and how nature will be prioritised in the national park.