Ms Sadhbh O'Neill:

It is welcome to see the Minister, Deputy Ryan, leading the charge to revive the nature restoration law in Europe. Hopefully there will be enough political will gathered together to make it possible to pass that. It is absolutely urgent legislation. It probably relates more to the biodiversity aspects of this but will also have an impact on European-wide decarbonisation efforts and the loss of greenhouse gas emissions from degraded wetlands and so on. It is worth saying that some of the initiatives that have taken place in recent years, particularly around wetland restoration in Ireland, have been immediately successful. This is a place where one can spend money quite quickly to get emissions reductions and it should be prioritised. There are some good news stories and we have the means to act and we have the evidence. Certainly at a European level it is very worrying. It is absolutely vital that the Irish Government, no matter who is in government over the next few years, maintains its commitment to the Paris Agreement and to its effective implementation through EU processes.