Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister is agreeable, we will go back and forth with questions and answers. I welcome this opportunity to discuss biodiversity. Last week, I raised the issue with the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Bruton. Fundamentally, biodiversity and its capacity as a nature-based solution to climate change and dealing with climate change adaptation and mitigation is very important. It is an area that has not been given the emphasis it requires. Its value and potential have not been recognised. Climate change and biodiversity are intrinsically linked. We will not be able to address climate change without addressing biodiversity and using nature-based solutions and, vice versa, our biodiversity will be impacted heavily by climate change. We need to address those two issues in tandem. Essentially, climate change and biodiversity are two sides of the same coin.

There is much good work happening locally. The all-Ireland pollinator plan has enabled individuals, residents' groups, businesses and councils to make an impact and a difference at grassroots level in the context of biodiversity in towns and villages. The excellent biodiversity handbook has been distributed to many households this year. It has inspired not just children, but also adults to make a difference in their own gardens and streets. That work is very important and I wish to acknowledge and commend it. However, grassroots action can only go so far when it comes to the important issue of biodiversity. We need leadership and a national vision on what we wish to see for our country when it comes to biodiversity.

In my view, an Ireland that is strong and robust in its nature and biodiversity and rich from a natural perspective would involve a series of core heavily protected areas that are not subject to economic, tourism or recreational pressures and in which we just let nature be and regulate itself. It will find its own balance. We would need to connect those areas with spaces people can visit and enjoy, but which also have a level of protection for biodiversity. We would need to create a web across our countryside to enable biodiversity to move and find space and protection in those areas and then connect them to our urban areas. Towns and villages should be as environmentally friendly as possible, with green buildings and green streets. Developers would be obliged to use existing hedgerows to ensure we provide as many habitats and environments as possible in order to allow nature to grow and expand. That is the kind of vision that has been outlined in recent weeks in the EU biodiversity strategy.

The most recent time the Minister and I discussed biodiversity in the House was the day after the EU biodiversity strategy was launched. At that stage, she had not had an opportunity to read it, but my understanding was that she was to meet the parliamentary state secretary to the German federal minister on the biodiversity strategy. What was the outcome of that meeting? What are the next steps relating to the strategy? Is it something the Department can support in its current form?

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