Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes, and my answer to that is much of the private finance is already going in this direction. What I say to the food industry and the farmers behind it is if they think that industry is going to be able to survive in this decade if it does not start addressing the ecological crisis we are in then they are badly mistaken because that funding will disappear. It is the same for forestry. We can, and will, examine new funding mechanisms to pay for nature-based solutions. However, I return to the key point, namely, that funding is available. Are we in this House, and local authorities across the country, willing to make the scale of leap we must make? I think we are and the people are. It will take time. There may indeed be periods when reductions are not seen. It is not going to be exact in each year. It is not a straight line. However, I am absolutely convinced we can, and will, make that turn. It will require absolute political courage in the decisions we must make, and there is no shortage of that on this side, as well as the funding to back it up.

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