Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can assure the Deputy that we take this matter seriously. Ireland's third national biodiversity action plan sets out actions to which a range of Government, civil and private sectors will undertake to achieve our vision for biodiversity. It is important that we do this. An allocation of €250,000 has been provided in 2018 to support, for example, local authority biodiversity projects and an additional €150,000 has been allocated to support tackling invasive alien species in their areas. There are many targeted actions that contribute towards our obligations under EU international directives and other relevant national policies, including the national peatlands strategy and the climate change adaptation framework. In February 2019, I will host a conference with Irish stakeholders on biodiversity, at which I will announce the first Biodiversity in the Community awards. We must address these issues at a local level before reaching out at a global level. I will also launch the 21/Seeds programme, which is an initiative of agreed actions by all stakeholders. We also have the The Living Bog programme which I spoke about earlier.

See this speech in context