Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

That 8 ha of land, which is completely underutilised and which is planned to be turned into a container park, should be an extension of the Poolbeg nature reserve. Deputy Bacik knows and I know - I do not know if the Ceann Comhairle has ever walked down that direction - that it is a most stunningly beautiful place in the middle of our city. It is absolutely doable for us to extend spaces for nature. We do it. I would go upriver, if I may be local, to look at not the Liffey in my case but the Dodder greenway and to develop that in a way that protects what is an incredible natural asset. We have salmon running up the Dodder. We have otters, kingfishers, badgers and herons - incredibly rich biodiversity in an urban setting. We need to protect that. The real risk to that, I would argue, and I am sure Deputy Bacik would agree, is some of the over-engineered flood protection works which have already done a lot of damage to the biodiversity of the lower stretches of the river. We need to avoid that as we protect against floods further upriver.

I mention that because I wish to go to a third, specific example. Last Monday, I was very proud to be in Glenasmole, the valley where the State purchased on our suggestion - eight years ago, I am not slow to admit - 2,000 ha of land. Now we are not only restoring the bog and maintaining and protecting the peatland there but also, critically, starting to develop natural forest by fencing off areas where we will see natural regrowth of trees occur and planting trees in other areas. The real prize and the attractive thing about that is that it is good for biodiversity and holds the water systems back in order that we do not get flooding on the river and do not have to culvert it so much and pour so much concrete to protect against the flood risk. The really attractive thing is that those sorts of initiatives and examples just in our local area are real examples of how this can be a win-win-win. In the Glenasmole Valley the local farmers are part of the whole initiative and taking part. We will still need grazing. We will still need a lot of the skills local farmers have. We will have to pay them for helping in that management of the land to its best in order to protect nature while also recognising that we are part of nature. Retaining our place within nature in both urban and rural Ireland is a central part of where we need to go.

The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is due to present the next biodiversity action plan very shortly. That is key, but there is another project which we are halfway through, namely the land use review, which has to complement and integrate with the biodiversity action plan. We can do that in a way that optimises the development of farming communities and protects the family farm.

There has been an incredible amount of misinformed commentary in the past few days scaring people that the nature restoration law in Europe represents the end of Irish agriculture and Irish farming and the worst thing that has ever befallen this country. The worst thing that could befall this country is if we were to continue on the path of destruction or to sign a nature destruction law rather than a nature restoration law. That would be the worst prospect for the people of our country, living on this most incredibly beautiful island: to see the salmon gone and to have no sound of the curlew or any of the other birds, half of which are threatened with extinction at this time. That would be the real disaster and the thing on which we need to raise the alarm across all parties: that value and appreciation of nature, and the understanding that the fundamental point in ecology is that everything is interconnected. The solutions to climate change are connected to the solutions to biodiversity loss, which are connected to the solutions to our water and air pollution problems, and those, in turn, are connected to our future economic security and success as well as our social stability. It has to be a just transition.

I am very glad to be able to speak in the debate. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to come in.

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