Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the day when thousands of children were marching nationally on climate change and the need to address it, local ecologists in the Tallaght area discovered that South Dublin County Council had essentially landfilled acres of reserve and habitat in Sean Walsh Memorial Park in Tallaght, destroying literally thousands of microorganisms and habitats. Local ecologist Mr. Collie Ennis, a member of the Irish Herpetological Society and a scientist in Trinity College Dublin who had been instrumental in identifying the rewilding of this area and the degree to which it had become a little gem or miracle in this location, was simply appalled at what transpired. South Dublin County Council had that very week identified the area in its own documentation and had included the protection of these wetland habitats and reserves as an objective in its Tallaght local area action plan. Will the Government initiate an inquiry into how this happened? After a climate action plan has been announced, how can a local authority or a State agency engage in such environmental vandalism, attacking and destroying an area rich in biodiversity? It defies any logical explanation. It demands an inquiry because it suggests that all levels of Government are not on board in respect of the most pressing issue of our time.

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