Ms Marie Donnelly:

Biodiversity was one of the areas we specifically looked at as part of the process of developing the proposals on the common budget. We got some very good input from experts in different parts of the country on that. We have some experts on the council which also helps.

Inadvertently our biodiversity sites are being damaged through lack of awareness. One of the first things we need to do is increase awareness and sensitivity in not just the commercial sector and development sector, but also in local authorities which are involved at a local level through planning activities. We have seen that it is possible to marry economic development with careful management of biodiversity if it is done properly. That was the key issue that came out of the analysis the council did as part of the process.

Our policy on land use in Ireland is possibly the area where the gap is most evident. Ireland does not yet have a developed land-use policy. In the absence of that, it would be very hard to address the questions of biodiversity and a species loss. We would be very supportive of the development of a land-use policy so that we can establish the baseline, understand where we are starting from, understand where the pressure points are and put in place the correct measures to ensure that we get it right with land use, development, maintenance and sustainability to protect our biodiversity. That will include, for example, what kind of species we should be planting in our forests. We need to plant more but we need to determine which species to plant in our forestry development. It is an area of real concern for the council. We received extensive research input to the discussions before we made proposals for the budget.