Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I had the opportunity to speed read the Minister of State's presentation. I acknowledge his work to date on it and the very low base from which he takes the work. We are here making statements about climate change on biodiversity week, again. It is four or five years since we declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. The Minister of State has outlined some of the reports that highlight the crisis we are in. I represent a city and a rural area and I am absolutely in favour of rural and regional development. We are developing the cities out of proportion. I represent a rural and island area. However, many of those areas are operating in a vacuum. I might not have time to come back to them, but we have no island policy. We have not taken up the opportunities offered by seaweed and wool - I have mentioned this repeatedly - which would provide sustainable work in rural and coastal areas.

The Minister of State has mentioned some of the reports, including the report on the state of biodiversity, which found there were more losers than winners. It is the report by researchers in Queen's University Belfast to which almost everybody has referred. Some 48% of the more than 71,000 species included in the researchers' analysis are undergoing population declines. The report states that global biodiversity, that is, life on earth, is entering its six mass extinction. Deputy Bruton talked earlier about scientists not using clear language. I cannot think of any clearer language than that of global biodiversity - life on earth - entering its sixth mass extinction. The report states "this mass extinction is the first directly induced by a single species — humans" and some 28% of life on earth is currently threatened with extinction.

The report published in March 2023, Ireland's Changing Flora, which was the result of 20 years' research, found that non-native plant species now outnumber native species. Globally, 40% of plant species are threatened and biomonotony is taking over from biodiversity. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services issued a stark warning in 2019 and things have deteriorated since then. In 2019, it said nature was declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history and that the rate of species extinction was accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world. Of course, the grave impacts are on people who have less. That has always been the way; those most vulnerable suffer. The National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, report 2019 found that 85% of Ireland's EU-protected habitats have bad or inadequate status. The BirdWatch Ireland census, published every six years, shows that 63% of Ireland's 211 regularly occurring wild bird species are categorised as red or amber. These are all the figures. I am not inclined to read speeches, but I could read the same speech as last year. Some 70% of birds alive are poultry; mostly chickens. That might tell us something.

I agree with the Minister of State's two colleagues who were here earlier. I will be rushing off afterwards. However, it is indicative the Dáil is empty for statements on a biodiversity crisis. I have an excerpt from the Taoiseach's speech on 9 May, Europe Day, which reads:

Climate change is the single greatest threat facing humanity. We must be the generation that turns the tide on climate change and biodiversity loss.

We have an empty Dáil. I apologise in advance, because I will run off after this to catch a bus, but it is symbolic. We are talking to ourselves really, and the Minister of State is being left isolated, physically and metaphorically, with regard to the progress of a crisis. That is part of the problem. The Minister of State acted last year on the NPWS review, carried out by Dr. Stout and Dr. Ó Cinnéide. It found a considerable increase in NPWS responsibility, without matching reserves, and a lack of political champions at all levels.

After we declared a climate and biodiversity emergency, two things happened. A Supreme Court judgment said the mitigation plan was vague. The plan that was passed was vague and the citizen was entitled to know what was in it. The plan was quashed. More recently, An Bord Pleanála agreed the order granting permission for the outer bypass in Galway should be quashed, because it failed to consider climate change. A fantastic policy on sprat was brought in by the Government. It went to court and four years later, we have no policy on sprat. We have unsustainable catching of sprat in our waters. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine failed to communicate properly with the UK and Europe on one little thing. The point is we have a vacuum and the big boys are going in.

The Minister of State's colleagues said the people are ahead of us and made another point I agreed with. The people are way ahead of us. They showed us what to do in Galway years ago. Government policy has created the crisis. The point Deputy Boyd Barrett made was on the model we keep pursuing and how it is absolutely leading us to extinction. I disagree with Deputy Bruton. Of course, we need commercial activity, but it must be based on policy and it has to be matched by non-profit development for the sustainability of our planet. We cannot keep going on like this. Any of us could stand up here and talk about all of the warnings we have got. I will talk about the possibilities.

There is no need to use divisive language of "Them" and "Us" or "Farmers" and "Us". I represent a broad base. There is no need for that. Farmers are part of the solution, but the Government is repeatedly failing to deal with the threat we are facing and to reward people and bring in sustainable policies.

None of them has been acted on to date. We are now going down the road of exploiting our waters once again using the exact same model that has led us to this point of no return.

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