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

My Department is always interested in receiving submissions from Members of the Oireachtas. Howth may well be an area that we could examine.

12 o’clock

We already have six national parks covering 8,000 ha, 78 national reserves and 280 national monuments. There is a balance to be struck between conservation and extending that. I appreciate the Deputy's comments that the Department is doing everything it can to work with the new Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton, on climate action, across Government and on biodiversity. There is also a draft sectoral climate change adaptation plan for biodiversity which has been drawn up by the scientific staff at the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS. This was circulated by the NPWS recently. We also held a stakeholder workshop in October to discuss and refine elements of the plan. What the Deputy said is very important. We have to make sure we look after ecosystems and habitats for future generations. As Mary Robinson said, if we do not deal with it in this generation there will not be another one.

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