Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the statements. I was reading down through the statement released last Friday and it is welcome to see the value of biodiversity given a somewhat more substantial standing, particularly when it referred to sustainable development to underpin our economy, given a loss of biodiversity that we have not seen since previous mass extinctions. The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity needs to be escalated as well as the restoration of natural systems for constituencies like mine, Longford-Westmeath, which is a critical piece of work. There is a real and substantial opportunity to develop biodiversity in a sustainable manner that will benefit towns like Lanesborough, where the power plant was once the primary source of employment. For generations, the identity of towns like Lanesborough was intertwined with either Bord na Móna or the ESB because, after all, it was those companies that paid the wage cheques that paid the mortgages and rent, put food on the table and contributed to local shops and the local economy.

There is now a very ambitious plan to build a boardwalk on the Roscommon side of the River Shannon that would link to the islands and then, further on, on the Longford side, connect to another boardwalk on that side of the Shannon. I understand the cost of this would be approximately €10 million, including the cost of the land, but the huge economic benefit to the local economy of creating this cannot be overestimated, with the further creation of a potential hub as another driver for economic development. I urge the Minister to work with the Department and the two local authorities to ensure this town benefits from a true just transition into the future. I understand that at a meeting late last week, it was referred to as being a case of do or die because of the lack of other options. There is a real need for success in this programme.

It is plans like that - the positive plans, the plans that look to the future – that highlight the utter lack of forethought in regard to the Derryad Mid-Shannon Wilderness Park, which not only flies in the face of both preservation and development but will also have a serious negative consequence for the current and future biodiversity of the area. Instead of viewing the potential of this area as being of benefit to the community for training, education, research and appropriate tourism, there is instead a brutal proposal to remove those habitats and the subsequent loss of biodiversity that is, quite frankly, mind-boggling. We know there are regional, national and global assessments that show a decline in biodiversity, yet without the benefit of intervention or any form of interaction, this area flourished. It did best when left alone.

I specifically mentioned education because still today, in 2022, there is this flawed opinion that bogs are empty, barren places, that they are a wasteland, when in reality they are rich with flora and fauna and are a habitat to many creatures. There is the opportunity also to create on that site a museum that recognises its history, a history that is disintegrating. Huts that are still there, coats that are still hanging on hooks, are a snapshot of a part of our history that should not be lost through neglect. They should be preserved.

The threat to biodiversity in that instance is sadly replicated across my constituency, and Clonsura is another such area. The Government needs to adopt a much more far-reaching, long-term and truly sustainable approach to these issues. As referenced in the House before, part of that is the wind energy guidelines. We need to see them produced because where there is a vacuum of information, there is a vacuum that can be exploited, often to the detriment of these communities who are reliant on the Government to come out with guidelines to give them this information that seems so slow in coming.

It is very rare that what we do today in terms of biodiversity is something we will benefit from, but what we do today, our children, our grandchildren and future generations will absolutely benefit from.

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