Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to examine the Government’s strategic plan for the renewal of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The plan sets out an ambitious timeline for a full organisational restructuring of the NPWS that I believe is much needed and long overdue. It provides a substantial €55 million additional investment in the organisation that will allow for the recruitment of 60 key new staff to critically important roles. The strategic action plan aims to deliver an NPWS that is more resilient, better resourced, and better equipped to play its part in Ireland’s response to the biodiversity emergency on the national and international stages. The plan will equip the NPWS with the organisational capability and supporting structures to enable it to deliver on its mandate in protecting our natural heritage. It is important to note that the plan fulfils a crucial commitment in the programme for Government, providing for a significant investment in and renewal of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. I thank the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, and his colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, and their officials for preparing the plan and securing the necessary resources.

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, who is present, for his attendance. I will turn to our constituency of Dún Laoghaire for a moment.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service, as the Minister of State would be aware, works closely with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to protect biodiversity at important sites such as Dalkey Island, where there is a significant Arctic tern colony as well as goats and all sorts of other wildlife that is all protected. Work is ongoing with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the local council.

The NPWS also supported efforts at Killiney Hill to expand the red squirrel population. Back in 2012, for example,15 red squirrels from the Raven Nature Reserve in County Wexford were released into the area to supplement the local population. This project has involved schoolchildren, which has helped promote awareness of the need for conservation and biodiversity locally.

The additional funding being provided to the National Parks and Wildlife Service is very welcome. Hopefully, this will allow a greater focus on sites like the proposed natural heritage area at Loughlinstown Forest. This is an almost 20-acre forest and an important outpost of native broadleaf woodland in an increasingly urban area, but it has been largely overlooked for many years. The National Parks and Wildlife Service needs to not only work with local councils on issues such as forests, but also in relation to biodiversity corridors. Hopefully, with the additional resources it has been given, it will be able to work closely with those local authorities.

Finally, as the citizens' assembly gathers to discuss biodiversity, it will make recommendations in due course, but in the meantime we need to take action and this national strategy is a very positive first step.

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