Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

General Scheme of the Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Bill 2023: Discussion

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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How can we avoid a situation, as happened in my constituency some years ago, where the building of a motorway had to be diverted and rearranged because of the existence of a slug, vertigo angustior? It cost €25 million to save the snail's bacon. To this day, we do not know whether that was €25 million well spent. In those kinds of situations in the future, how do we quantify the impact on biodiversity, ecology and so on as well as the impact on the economy?

I also have a few other questions. I do not want to go on too long, but I want to get the answers as well as I can.