Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There is a significant amount to which I need to reply. If I do not reply on all the queries, I will try to respond to the Deputies at a later point.

I have an announcement that highlights the challenge we face. I am aware of an outbreak of avian influenza at Our Lady's Island tern colony in Wexford. The NPWS and Birdwatch Ireland are working to ensure the effect on this internationally important bird site is minimised. Members of the public should not handle dead or sick birds but, rather, contact a regional veterinary laboratory or ring the avian influenza hotline on (01) 6072512 or, outside office hours, (01) 4928026. We will put those numbers on our social media channels and the NPWS website later.

I thank Deputy O'Rourke for his ongoing leadership on this issue. I recognise the good points he made and the progress we have made to date. He and Deputy Connolly both raised the issue of recommendation 11 in the NPWS report. We are working on the terms of reference for that and making progress on the recommendation. I agree it is critical to look at the role of other bodies in respect of biodiversity. I have been to Girley Bog previously but I am more than happy to go back. It is fabulous place; I loved it.

Deputy Cronin raised the issue of Emo Court. That has been dealt with comprehensively and addressed by me in several replies. The situation was addressed by the OPW and a corrective course of action has been taken in that regard.

Deputies Duncan Smith and Ó Cathasaigh referenced Inland Fisheries Ireland. Notwithstanding the governance issues affecting IFI, we are doing important work with it, particularly in respect of the next river basin management plan on hydromorphology and getting our rivers back into free-flowing status. We appreciate that work. Reference was made to Atlantic salmon in the River Tolka and several Deputies, including Deputy Alan Farrell, referred to Glenasmole. It is a fantastic project and shows what can be done, even in an urban environment, to try to address issues of water quality and the cooling of rivers by using good riparian planting and stabilisation of riverbanks.

Several Deputies raised issues relating to the nature restoration law. There was a good sense of unity regarding where we are now compared with where we were a number of weeks or even months ago in the context of the nature restoration law. That is critical. Whatever happens in the European Parliament next week, it is important that the House has extensively debated the matter, not just yesterday but also in two separate sessions. It puts us in a good place and gets greater understanding out to the public regarding what we are trying to achieve and our aim to work with landowners to achieve these targets. Deputy Alan Farrell referenced areas north of the Liffey, as well as Glenasmole. It is something to which we could give consideration under the river basin management plan.

Several Deputies raised the issue of skills and labour shortages. We met the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, last week to discuss these issues. We are very concerned. Some 20 years ago, people who qualified from college probably would not have found much work in this country.

What we can say very clearly now is that there are decades of work ahead. We need armies of people, both qualified professionals and also people on the ground, to carry out a lot of the practical conservation work such as invasive species removal. We will work with Minister Harris's team to try to develop a plan relating to that. Also, on the issue of conservation of marine and marine protected areas, the legislation for that will be due in September, I hope. Just to note that our special protection areas, SPAs, or special areas of conservation, SAC, marine designations have gone from approximately 2.4% to 8.2%. We are due to go beyond 10% so we are well on track regarding that.

Deputy Ó Murchú raised issues of urban trees and made very good points on that and again, Article 6 of the nature restoration regulation will deal with urban environments so when we get to the point of doing our nature restoration plan there is a fantastic opportunity to address issues of urban biodiversity. He also mentioned the Cooley Mountains and tourism and I agree wholeheartedly. I visited there on a number of occasions. It is a really beautiful part of the country and there is a lot of really good work going on in terms of conservation grazing and dealing with bracken and other invasive species up there. There are fantastic landowners working right across the Cooleys and they are great people.

Deputy Whitmore raised the issue of staffing and the spend in the NPWS. Certainly, what I outlined in my opening speech has moved us in a positive trajectory but I agree we could always use more. There is the issue of capacity to spend as we slowly ramp up the work of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. What was probably not mentioned in her comments were the LIFE projects and other programmes that were brought in to try to deal with that. There are issues of rhododendrons and Deputy Whitmore talked about the ban of the sale of them from garden centres. That is something we could look at in the invasive species management plan. It is mostly rhododendron ponticum that was planted around estates and that is why it ended up in the national parks in the first place. We are making significant progress regarding that. On deer populations, the deer management forum is working there are we are doing some very good work on that.

Finally, in the time I have remaining, Deputy Bruton mentioned the circular economy. Absolutely, to address resource use as a driver of biodiversity loss is critically important and I see a positive role for businesses and corporates in this. We are partnering with a number of then, most notable Intel in the Wicklow Mountains National Park. Again, I thank Deputy Gino Kenny, for his comments particularly regarding walking trails. We want people to go out and enjoy nature, to be part of it, and there is some really good work out there with Leave No Trace and others. Deputies Leddin and Christopher O'Sullivan raised the important work that will be ahead of their committee relating to the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss and I wish them well with that. Finally, I thank Deputy Catherine Connolly for raising the issues of the general operatives and the staff. Some of the work I have seen these people do is just remarkable and again I cannot reiterate enough the gratitude I have because those are the people on the ground who are carrying out the measures we need to ensure our parks are enjoyed by the millions of people who use them.

In closing, to reflect on yesterday's debate on the nature restoration regulation and today's statements on the National Parks and Wildlife Service I recall the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken". We are at a point of divergence:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Nature and society are at such a crossroads and the road we need to take is very clear. That is the path of lending nature a hand so that it continues to lend us both. We are the first generation who has all the metrics to tell us what we need to do for nature. We are the last generation who can do anything about it and that is really sobering. As a reformed, reset, and well-resourced National Parks and Wildlife Service is our national vehicle for conservation, its mission to protect nature is a call to duty for Government, community and corporate alike. There is no deal that can be struck with nature to stop its decline. She does not negotiate. There is, however, a deal we can strike with ourselves to make the change and to punctuate the beginning of the end of negative impacts for nature. There is a need not to be a zero-sum game. Debates are sometimes simplified into the binary of what we can and cannot do. I prefer to talk in terms of what can be done. It is not always about stopping one thing to do another. It is perhaps mostly about doing that one thing differently, doing it in a way that is actually sustainable and doing it in a way that nature meant it to be done in the first place. As we mark the first anniversary of the reform of the National Parks and Wildlife Service I am indeed happy to report that it is either on or ahead of schedule on most of the milestones set for it.

I say hello to my children Kitty and Stephen, and Jennie my wife, with the Ceann Comhairle's indulgence.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service's laser focus from now on must be serving the nature agenda, for which it was established, and delivering on our goals for nature. It must continue to ask itself if everything it undertakes is aimed exclusively at a positive for nature. It has my vote of absolute confidence and to see it up close every day is incredibly impressive as it addresses its mission. Nothing good will happen for nature until change is made. I hope Deputies will agree that we are making, and will continue to make, that change. We all need to be on board in this great project to restore and protect nature. It is not just the job of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, it is a burden and a duty we all must share.

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