Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Deputy Farrell spoke at the end of his contribution about trees. We all know the huge body of work that needs to be done with afforestation and we know about the difficulties, which are in the public domain and have been over and back on investment funds right through to grant schemes that are fit for purpose. That definitely needs to happen.

My last conversation with the local ranger would have been talking about trees and dealing with difficulties around trees. It is not the first time I have said in this House that there needs to be a holistic conversation with local authorities and others. We all know the difficulties in urban areas where we have the wrong trees in the wrong places, where they looked very nice when they were so high but then became too big, both above and below ground. In the likes of Ashbrook in Dundalk there have been huge issues with particular sets of trees. In other areas there have been issues with leylandii and whatever else. It is not a tree I could say anything particularly good about but in certain places they are impacting on houses. I have brought this up with the local authority many times. We need a means of dealing with this. This is not about cutting down every tree. It is about replacing them with trees that are more fit for purpose in these areas, trees that are not going to hit the sewerage system and block it or destroy the foundations of people's homes and create huge levels of nuisance value. That is something that needs to be built into that work, alongside the work that has to be done on the wider issue of afforestation. There needs to be a more holistic conversation about that as well.

When we talk about my county of Louth, and particularly north Louth, I think of the Cooley Mountains and the issues there have been with fires at times. We have to look at means of managing that. There have been issues dealing with farming and people bringing dogs onto the mountains and whatever. We need to look at rules. We also need to look at our behaviour and doing what is best. We need to take two things into account. First, we have to make sure we build in what can be provided through tourism for that part of the world, even adventure tourism, and second, we need to look at what can be done from a cultivation, heritage and biodiversity point of view. I do not think we have all those pieces put together.

At some point I am going to need to have a conversation with the Minister of State about the whole idea of heritage. We want Ireland's Ancient East to literally criss-cross the part of the world I am in, even going into the North and taking notice of that entire region. Even on the outskirts of Dundalk, it is a place where mythology hits history in the sense that we can go from Cú Chulainn into the Williamite Wars and whatever else. A number of people I have met have spoken about this. Issues have arisen as building goes on. It is necessary building but we need to protect our heritage and beyond protecting our heritage, ensure we can build in a tourism dividend. My part of the world has gone without that for far too long.

We need a fit-for-purpose system for the National Parks and Wildlife Service where it criss-crosses with all those other necessary agencies. We have all been in here speaking about everything from water quality to issues relating to biodiversity. I just cannot get this out of my head. It is the second time I have mentioned it this week. A million species are facing extinction. If you are not going to get worried that we have a problem in relation to that, you are never going to get too worried about anything. It is a matter of putting all these pieces together.

Many Deputies have spoken about how in some cases we have to listen to young people. I remember a time when I was young; I can just about remember it. The Dundalk Youth Centre and the Newry, Mourne and Down Youth Area Service were in here during the week. Some of the first questions they put to us related to biodiversity, climate change and all those pieces and not enough being done. On some level we have had plenty of discussion about the nature restoration law but we need action. We need a system that works for all of us and for farmers and one we can get agreement on at a European level. Then we can make it happen. We know the work that needs to be done.

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