Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I do not know if the Minister of State is a birdwatcher but I am delighted to say that on 10 May, the swifts arrived to Dublin South-Central. We were absolutely delighted. A group of us were out mapping trees to see how many trees were there, and then the swifts arrived. Maybe they have arrived down the Minister of State's neck of the woods as well.

Dublin South-Central is a constituency that has, particularly in the Dublin 8 area, the lowest level of greenspace per capita in the country.

We have to work hard to keep areas in the city centre with biodiversity. I might mention some of the fantastic work that is happening. For example, Bloomin Crumlin has an orchard project and the Inchicore Environmental Group does vital work along the Camac river to restore the water quality and habitats. The Liberties litter pickers go out on the weekends to make sure the place we live is tidy, clean and free of rubbish and Trees for Tenters advocates for more native trees in an historic part of our city. There are cleanup crews in all parts of Dublin South Central. People are working from the ground up, taking it seriously. The Social Democrats has always championed a rights-based model of environmental protection. We are delighted to celebrate biodiversity this week and to see the number of people who have come to the Chamber to talk about it. It belongs to everybody. The Camac and Poddle rivers run through that neighbourhood. We must make sure those waterways are protected and maintained and that there are no more incidents like the one earlier this year in Inchicore when a structure fell into the river. We look forward, with all the building work going on, to seeing more biodiversity there.

See this speech in context