Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is fitting, on National Biodiversity Week, an initiative run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, that we are having these important statements on the new strategic action plan.

Like other speakers, I want to start by not just commending the Minister of State for the action plan itself, but by making a very clear statement that if it was not for the Minister of State's personal efforts since taking up the role that he has, I do not believe that we would have the plan that is in front of us or that we would be having this debate. I say that with all sincerity. As the Minister of State knows, too often when we face one another across the Chamber, we are disagreeing, whether it is on housing, planning or other policies. I think that it is important that on the issues where there is strong cross-party support, we are big enough to acknowledge very good work and the provision of additional funding, as the last speaker mentioned, the provision of additional park rangers and the progress that has been made to date. I also want to acknowledge the Minister of State's openness to engaging with the Opposition on this matter. We met last year with the Minister of State's officials. He gave us a commitment that he would involve the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the consultation, which he did. I certainly think those of us who participated in that meeting with the review group will be more than pleased with the outcome at this stage.

Our position from the outset was that we wanted a strong, fully resourced and independent parks and wildlife service. I think the actions that are outlined from 2022 to 2024 put us well on the way to achieving that. For those of us who do not have a background in the area, and who in the previous Oireachtas were more likely to be dealing with concrete and bricks in the old Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government than natural heritage and wildlife, when those functions were moved into the Department it took us a lot of catching up to do to understand their importance not just in rural Ireland, but in many respects and more urgently in urban Ireland, because of the scale of biodiversity loss in those areas where emissions are having a much more dramatic impact on our natural environment. Therefore, there has been a very steep learning curve for many of us. We are pleased to continue to work with the Minister of State on the issue. I made the point at the time that there are a number of agencies that we are very used to working with and that we would like to see the NPWS evolve into the same role. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, is one that clearly, over a period of years, went from being a weak function of a Government Department to a fully independent service with very significant powers and a significant budget. I think it has a huge impact on its areas of responsibility. In the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage we have a long history of working with it in that respect. Likewise, for example, the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, is another body that has evolved since the original Residential Tenancies Act. I am only citing those two agencies because I am hoping, and I am sure I am echoing the Minister of State's own thoughts, that beyond the actions in this plan, there is a bigger and stronger future for the NPWS.

One point that I wish to make strongly to the Minister of State is that the appointment, and the process for the appointment, of the CEO is going to be key in this enhanced NPWS. I strongly recommend that there is an open competition for the role and that the Public Appointments Service is used in some form or other. I think it would be a mistake to appoint a senior official directly from any Government Department to the role. That is no disrespect to any senior official. Given the scale of change that the Minister of State is aiming for, I think it would send a really powerful signal if there was an independent, publically-appointed CEO to drive the change agenda that the Minister of State has put in front of us. I am hoping that is something that the Minister of State or his colleagues can speak to at the end of the debate. I also urge the Minister of State to continue to work both with the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Joint Committee on Climate Action. I note that there are members of that committee here. It is an issue that cuts across the different agendas of different Departments. There is different expertise among the members of both of those committees. I think the more of that collaboration, the better for all of us.

It is also fitting that we have this debate today because yesterday we saw the publication of the World Meteorological Organization's State of Global Climate 2021 report. It is the third in a series of reports, including from our own Climate Advisory Committee and the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, IPCC, that are increasingly sounding the alarm bells for both the climate catastrophe and also the enormous biodiversity loss that we have experienced and are currently experiencing. I thought it was very interesting that RTÉ made it the main news item agenda last night. That is a significant development. However, for me, what is probably more significant is that the Irish Independent, a newspaper that has been regularly criticised by many climate activists for promoting or facilitating a level of climate change denial, today published one of the most powerful editorials I have seen to date. I do not know if the Minister of State read it this morning. I think it is important to put that editorial on the record, only because of the publication in which it is contained, and the fact that it is the largest selling newspaper on the island. The editorial opened with a quotation from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres: "A dismal litany of human failures", which was his response to the report from the WMO. The General Secretary of the WMO, Professor Petteri Taalas, warned that "Our climate is changing before our eyes". The Minister of State knows this. It has been his position that that is the case, as it is for many of the subsequent speakers in the debate, for a long time. For that editorial to be the lead story of the Irish Independent is genuinely remarkable. It shows that these arguments are breaking into the mainstream. The editorial went on to state clearly:

The harm has reached record levels in the past year, with some indicators suggesting we have hit the point of no return. The consequences of a warmer planet, with ocean temperatures rising alarmingly, are stark. Acidification of the ocean has intensified, making conditions inhospitable for many marine organisms.

Last night, we saw on television the underwater images of the mass destruction of that marine biodiversity. We look forward to working with the Minister of State on the legislation on marine protected areas when it comes before our committee, hopefully at the latter end of this year. The editorial went on to state that:

Sea-level rise accelerated due to faster melting of glaciers and ice sheets, reaching an average increase of 4.5mm per year from 2013 to 2021 or more than double the rate recorded ten years earlier. By now there can be no confusion that this is all about abstract changes in the weather. It demands immediate changes in the way we live our lives. As temperatures rise, people and animals are forced to move or change habits.

The editorial continued:

We have seen how displaced people can be thrown into conflict, being forced to compete for scant resources. We have also seen how in the Horn of Africa millions are threatened with hunger due to drought. In other parts of the continent, extreme rainfall is causing flooding. The tragedy is, there is no known way to reverse the damage. 'The heat trapped by human-induced greenhouse gases will warm the planet for many generations to come,' Professor Taalas said.

It did not mention animals and wildlife, but the point could easily be inserted there. For me, the most powerful thing, at the end of the editorial, was that it was very clear. We know what the solutions are. We have the technology. The big challenge is whether there is the political will to accelerate those changes across every area of human life, social and economic, to ensure that at a minimum, we meet our Paris Agreement targets by 2030 and 2050. I believe that the work the Minister of State is doing, both in the NPWS reform and with marine protected areas, is going to be key to that.

To conclude, I welcome this strategic plan. I hope the Minister of State takes on board constructive suggestions I have made with respect to the appointment of the CEO. We want to continue to be an ally of the Minister of State in this, both as a party and as a committee, in the time ahead. We hope the Minister of State continues with his very open engagement with us to ensure what I think we all want, which is not only the protection of the biodiversity that we have but the restoration of so much of the biodiversity loss that we have seen to date, can be achieved. If we are partners in that, we can do an enormous amount in the time ahead.

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