Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak on this very important matter and return attention to the much-needed reform of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which was started just over a year ago following the publication of three reports which we discussed at the time. I pay tribute to the Minister of State. It is not a love-in but I pay tribute in particular to his thanks and gratitude for the general operatives on the ground, who are the rangers and the scientific staff.

He put it in that format, paying tribute first to the general operatives. I wish more Ministers and local authorities would realise the value of general operatives on the ground, call them in and listen to them. I certainly wish that would happen in the city council and county council because management has much to learn.

Deputy Bruton stated he has a concern that people will be overwhelmed by the magnitude of this. I have no such concern. The citizens' assembly, which put forward 159 recommendations, stated: "The number of recommendations speaks to the scale and breadth of the problem of biodiversity loss in Ireland. It also represents the extent of the material presented to the Assembly." Most important, the assembly went on to state that it shows the "fundamental disappointment in the capacity demonstrated by the State to coherently and deliberately tackle biodiversity loss." It went on to give the stark figures and so on. It repeated emphasised that, "[a]s an Assembly it was frustrating to listen to this litany of shortcomings and failures." I do not have the same concerns as Deputy Bruton. I have serious concerns in respect of the Government, what it has taken the Minister of State personally to get this far, with the Opposition pushing with some of his colleagues. I acknowledge that.

Let us look briefly at from where we came. In 2002, a strategic action plan. There was a review by Dr. Jane Stout and Dr. Micheál Ó Cinnéide, as well as another document, entitled Reflect and Renew. All of that lead into actions. What did the article or study by Dr. Ó Cinnéide tell us? It referred to a harrowing account of the neglect by successive governments towards meaningful action on biodiversity loss in a political system that did not appear to value nature and biodiversity. That is where we are at. I gave the context for this a few days ago when we were talking about the nature restoration law. I worry about leadership not from the Minister of State, but from the Government and the many sides of its mouth from which it is capable of speaking. Although the result of the vote last night was positive and welcome, at European level there are members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as well as a member of Sinn Féin, doing the complete opposite rather than working together as they are constantly lecturing us to do.

As regards the three reports, it was welcome at the time that the action plan took on board most of the recommendations. I note from the progress tracker that of the 30 actions that were to be completed by the end of June, a very welcome 20 have been completed and implemented. Six were on track. There were three actions that were not started and they are of concern because one of them was the completion of the draft risk register and the workforce plans. Although the Minister of State made the point in his remarks that there has been a welcome increase in staffing, it is difficult for me to put that in perspective without seeing it in context and a workforce plan. Two other actions had not been acted upon or were in the course of being acted upon but, in the interest of brevity, I will not go into them. One action has not been acted upon and it is particularly worrying. It had a target completion date of June 2022 and it has not started. It states, "Government may also wish to consider the wider issue of the roles and functions of public bodies in relation to biodiversity and nature at this juncture." That is the critical one. If we look the local authorities, Galway County Council only recently got a biodiversity officer. The city council got one a couple of months ago. We passed a draft biodiversity plan in my time on the council and I am gone from it since 2016. Lip service has been paid at local level to biodiversity, notwithstanding the tremendous work being done on the ground by various members of Galway city and county councils. I am zoning in on management level, where there is a lack of vision and leadership while those on the ground doing the work are crying out for exactly that.

As regards the European Court of Justice and the latest condemnation of Ireland - the Minister of State put it in perspective - on 29 June the court found that Ireland had breached its obligations under the habitats directive. I know the Minister of State is examining the judgment and states that progress has been made in respect of the judgment, given that it was based on what happened in 2019. When will the State respond to the judgment?

I ask the Minister of State to comment on the actions that have not progressed even though they had a deadline of this year and on the most important one that has not been acted on at all.

As regards the reviews, I welcome the establishment of the agency and the progress that has been made. We had no choice. It took a declaration of a biodiversity and climate change emergency to get action. I understand a report is carried out every six years by the NPWS in respect of biodiversity. Can that be brought back? We are in a crisis. Can it be brought back?

I pay tribute to the Minister of State on his work but it needs to be accompanied by transformative action. Later today, the House will discuss the further militarisation of Europe. We cannot be taking climate change seriously if, at the same time, we are warmongering or part of the warmongers of Europe that go hand in hand.

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