Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 28 March 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Nature Restoration Law and Land Use Review: Discussion
Mr. Joe Condon:
This is from the synthesis report on land use, which is under investigation and I am told is peer-reviewed. It states that land cover categories most associated with high biodiversity values occur predominantly in the Border, west and mid-west regions. I am reading that to mean that "high biodiversity value" exists in those areas. That is close to 40% of the agricultural area of the country. Something positive is happening in those areas. Otherwise, that mapping process could not exist and that evidence would not exist. That shows me that there is a high biodiversity value occurring in those areas. Where would you put a nature restoration law for something that is described as having a high biodiversity value? I will rest my point there.