Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wholeheartedly agree with Deputy Leddin's comments on what the Minister of State has achieved. Deputy Leddin spent his entire statement speaking about how great the Minister of State is. I will not do that. These are statements on progress in the National Parks and Wildlife Service and, by God, there has been incredible progress in the organisation. I know it is an organisation in which staff morale was pretty low. It was coming from a very low base. People were frustrated. Wildlife enthusiasts were frustrated with the response of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, particularly when pointing out habitat destruction or wildlife crime. It was pretty bad but it has been absolutely transformed. We are not yet where we need to be but the transformation is visible. We can see this positivity creeping back into the organisation, even among wildlife enthusiasts. This change is happening.

Staffing numbers are visibly increasing. We can see it happening in front of our eyes. I can see it in west Cork, as the Ceann Comhairle pointed out, and Deputy Leddin would be disappointed if I did not mention it. We had a situation where we had one ranger covering a vast area. Now it has been split up into three or four different sections and there is a team working there. It is making the response times much better. Clonakilty and that area now has its own ranger. Bandon and its surrounding area has its own ranger. The area west of Rosscarbery has its own ranger. We all know them. We all have their contact details. The response is much better. A couple of weeks ago, a wild buzzard was found dead on the side of the road. It was reported to me straight away. I was straight onto the ranger. Within days there was a toxicology report. Unfortunately, a rodenticide was found in the buzzard. People had given up reporting such occurrences. They did not bother because they would not get a response. This is great. We just have to keep going in this direction. We have to keep fighting.

The attitude of the NPWS towards nature restoration projects and biodiversity projects has completely changed. The Minister of State stood on Clogheen Marsh with me and a group which on two or three occasions had tried to start a campaign for a nature reserve in Clogheen. It collapsed every time because of a lack of interest from the NPWS. The attitude has changed completely. Now we have a year of survey work done. We are looking at the next phase of the project, which is putting in bird hides. This was unthinkable previously. It is changing and we just need to keep the momentum going. There is great interest in wildlife but, unfortunately, massive degradation and loss of habitat is still happening. Unfortunately, wildlife and biodiversity are not in a good place in Ireland and we cannot deny it. It is very easy to pat ourselves on the back and say we are doing a great job. Unfortunately, years of neglect have meant that we are in a bad place and we have a lot to respond to.

I have the perfect example of projects that can make a difference. I constantly refer to Annagh Marsh on the Mullet Peninsula in Mayo. I visited it one June. I could not hear myself think with the sound of skylarks singing. There were snipe on every lamppost calling and singing. It was a joy to behold. We can have this throughout Ireland. I urge the NPWS to go that step further and where there are approaches made for purchasing or taking into control land that would be suitable for biodiversity projects, restoration, rewilding or letting places as they are for wildlife, there should be an open attitude towards them.

I must pick up on what Deputy Leddin said about remuneration and pay. For ecologists especially, it is quite a competitive market. There is no shortage of work. There is a lot of money in renewable energy and surveying sites for wind and solar energy. There is big money in it. It is very hard for the State to compete with it. Unless we do so, we will lose out on the ecologists who are needed to run the NPWS. We need a scheme to ensure we can attract in the best and attract nature lovers.

I am looking forward to working on the citizens' assembly report. There should be a stand-alone Minister with responsibility for biodiversity because of where we have gone to in Ireland in terms of the state of nature. We also need a stand-alone committee. I have often said that biodiversity gets caught between housing, climate action and agriculture. It keeps getting confused and diluted. There has been incredible progress with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It is very much down to the Minister of State and his hands-on approach and the team he has with him, with which I am very familiar. They have a real passion for nature. Some of them even have cameras in their own nest boxes which is cool.

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