Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am a member of the Joint Committee on Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and we have a very fine Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. When we look at the whole area of culture - music, dance, drama, visual arts, literature, poetry and all the myriad of the arts - from the time we are children to the time we are old but young at heart, it is an enormous, universal area and an expression of the human being. If we then look at heritage, we are into the whole area of the environment, hedges, trees, animals, peatlands, birds and insects - what my colleague, Senator Grace O'Sullivan was speaking about yesterday - a world of life, a universe of biodiversity that is slowly eroding.

I have an important question in this regard. I want to ask the Leader what one does, as a Senator, to try to get both of those Departments separated. In 2019, there should be a Department with a specific outline of biodiversity and environment - of our living, diverse environment. I am not talking about the environment of building-----