Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the climate committee's consideration of the landmarks citizens' assembly on biodiversity loss. I thank the witnesses who presented before the committee. I also thank the secretariat, the other committee members, a number of whom are in the Chamber, and the Chair of the committee for his chairing of proceedings. Like others, I most of all want to thank and commend the work of the citizens' assembly and the young people's assembly. We thank them for their efforts and for their deep consideration.

We were limited in what we could do as a committee. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, referenced this. It is very important our report is considered. We also had an earlier report on biodiversity and these two reports together. With the best will in the world we were constrained, but within those four documents there is a comprehensive framework for the way we look at and seek to address the challenge of biodiversity loss.

Consistent through all of it is a number of detailed calls to action and for a step change in the way things are done. There are a number of detailed proposals in that regard. For me, nature will survive and find its way. It is about the way we as humans and society interact with nature, how we govern ourselves and how we put nature at the very heart of government in the broader sense of that term, by which I mean how we govern ourselves and how we interact.

There are a number of challenges in all of this in how different interests align in relation to the recommendations. I believe the citizens' assembly is a very pure piece of deliberative democracy where people come together, weigh up the scientific evidence, hear from experts and discuss together as individual citizens, leaving their biases at the door. Then we take their report and throw it into the dirty world of politics and the interests that are there with the pushes and the pulls. We must be blunt about the other considerations the political system brings. A lot of them are vested interests that have additional power. Such power imbalances have to be faced down and they must be challenged.

It is essential we look at the recommendations and use the levers of government these institutions have in terms of the State leading by example. The recommendations relating to the mandates of the State agencies and Bord na Móna and Coillte were referenced. There is also the need to strengthen our Constitution. I fully support the recommendations on referendums, the right to nature, the right to a healthy environment, and the detailed work required. We have had a very recent bad experience of the delivery of recommendations of referendums. We need to get that work right and the groundwork needs to be put in place.

There are a number of recommendations across all four reports. There is a significance to having young people in the room. The Minister of State is supportive of that. It requires a bottom-up and community led approach to support communities in their action. This is where they want to be. This is what they want to do. They need to be supported in it.

We had a Topical Issue matter today on coastal erosion in Wexford. We had promised legislation for coastal erosion in Portrane in north County Dublin. This is real and it needs to be responded to. The Minister spoke this morning on the nitrates directive and talked about the crisis in agriculture at the minute. It behoves us all to align these interests, to push in the right direction, to support farmers and support the agricultural sector because it is in everybody's interest. There is a reference to the Lá le Bríde project in the Burren National Park. We need to scale those projects and do them at pace. We need to support them in this transition. I firmly believe the opportunity is there and it needs to be delivered on.

See this speech in context