Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. I intend to be quite brief. I listened to the Minister of State's comments and I drafted some notes. I welcome the Minister’s contribution, but it has taken 12 months to get to this point. The fact that it is still being said that work is underway does not instil a huge amount of confidence in me.

I note that the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has on a multitude of occasions highlighted the work that Deputy Whitmore has done. If you are going to celebrate the work, we need to see the action coming from it. We are being told today that work is still underway and that is not really good enough.

Simply having the species on the list will not do anything without an action plan or a mandatory code of conduct, where appropriate. This is because the very definition of that would ensure greater protection to this species.

I finish by thanking, on behalf of Deputy Whitmore, the various different NGOs that have helped contribute to the Bill that she has designed. It is very welcome the Minister of State and the Government will not be opposing the Bill, but it needs action to follow up on it. This cannot be a Bill that simply sits on a shelf. The International Day for Biological Diversity will be on 22 May. We need to be able to show the action behind our will.

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