Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss heard this weekend that Ireland is not losing its biodiversity; it is haemorrhaging it. An expert told the assembly that we are one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet. Anyone crossing Ireland will see Sitka spruce plantations and biodiversity deserts everywhere. Basically, hedgerows that should be a refuge for biodiversity have been wiped out. We have learned from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, that our rivers and oceans continue to be of poor quality as a direct result of the growth in nitrate use which, in itself, is a direct consequence of the intensive farming and export-driven model into which farmers have been forced. It is time to move beyond platitudes on the biodiversity crisis and accept that Food Vision and other related plans from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have left the farming community largely struggling to survive, benefited only a tiny minority involved in intensive farming and export, and left us bare in terms of nature and biodiversity. We cannot separate the agricultural model in this country from the biodiversity crisis and collapse that is being overseen.

When will this change and when will the platitudes on biodiversity end?

See this speech in context