Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is what we are looking at when we consider biodiversity in the plant and animal world. There are very few varieties and we see the same thing over and over. During this debate, I hope to go through some of the reasons it is so important we do not go to 60 Róisín Garveys or one type of tree or animal left on the planet. It is what we face in this emergency we are discussing today.

I will start from the ground up, or even beneath the ground. I will mention the soil beneath our feet because sometimes we forget the importance of healthy soil. Even building a house we start with a good foundation. There are major issues with soil quality in the country. One teaspoon of healthy soil contains more microorganisms than there are people on the planet.Of course, that is in healthy soil. Together, these microorganisms break down all the rotting debris and turn it into good humus. They give us the nutrients and bacteria we need for our own food and for animals. To survive under the ground, the microorganisms need to be sheltered which is why they need something to keep them safe, no more than humans do. The microorganisms below ground need food and shelter just like us. Keeping the soil covered at all times is a good start because without healthy soil one gets poor drainage and increased run-off, of which we have seen much. People were talking about it in Cork this morning and it is happening all over the country. We have major issues with flooding and run-off and biodiversity is the solution to sort out this crisis.

I had the good fortune of studying organic horticulture in the Organic College in Dromcollogher with Jim McNamara many moons ago. He said that one feeds the soil, not the plant. Only with healthy soil do we get healthy plants, which includes all our food. Nobody can argue the difference between a healthy carrot or tomato grown from healthy soil and one grown in poor soil pumped with chemicals. If there was biodiversity in the soil, people would not need those chemicals and could grow their food naturally. What we need right now is a variety of grasses because to get healthy soil we have to have a mixture of grasses. Most grass swards are dominated by perennial ryegrass and some clover if one is lucky. With just two plant species in a mix, the modern grass sward has a lower number of insect species and other invertebrates than grass swards in the past. These modern swards also require higher levels of nutrients to achieve higher farm productivity. This leads to the less aggressive species of plants being outcompeted, with a subsequent loss in biodiversity. As always in this Chamber, we must focus on actions and solutions. We must focus on what can be done and what is being done.

I must mention an amazing man called Donal Sheehan. Just a few years ago he put out 40 chairs in his local hall to start a project called Farming with Nature. Some 140 people turned up to that meeting so they had to sit on each other's laps and were standing all around the place. One would not get away with that now. All the farmers in the area wanted to take part in this and be involved but the project had to turn them down as only 42 could take part. They then discovered there was only funding for 27 farmers. However, all 42 farmers agreed that they would split the money between them even though there was only money for 27 because they were so eager to get involved and do the right thing. What they do, simply, is grow a variety of grasses, which sorts out loads of problems. Farmers of every kind are involved, including small farmers with 15 ha and those with 400 ha. They might have ten cattle, 40 cattle, dry stock, weanlings or they might be dairy farmers. All types of farmers were involved. It is a good example of what can be done on all kinds of farms. It was named the Biodiversity Regeneration In a Dairying Environment, BRIDE, project after the lovely River Bride, which is a tributary of the beautiful River Blackwater.

The BRIDE project uses a multispecies grassland mix, which contains several grass species, including Timothy and Cocksfoot, and several wildflower species such as plantain, red and white clover and yarrow to benefit pollinators and a wide range of insects. The benefits of this scheme, though it sounds so simple, are huge. The inclusion of a mix of high clover will result in less use of nitrogen fertiliser. Many farmers have to spend lots of money on fertiliser but clover is a natural nitrogen fixer. Root systems of different species are important as well. This is interesting because soil loss occurs when there are heavy rains, but if there are lots of different types of grasses, they will have different roots with different depths and they hold onto that soil. They also help hold onto the nutrients when they are spread and they go into the soil and feed it.

This same principle will mean a higher tolerance of different climate conditions. Now we often get a month's worth of rain in two days and farmers are losing some of their topsoil as a result. More biodiversity underground improves soil health. It is a symbiotic relationship between the environment above and below ground. A healthier mix of grasses also enriches the variety of flowers, which then attract insects, including butterflies and predatory insects. Predatory insects sound scary but they are brilliant. In Dromcollogher, we saw that if one has flowers that attract predatory insects, those insects will take care of the aphids, greenflies and all the other insects farmers often have to spray to keep away. If they have the right flowers and biodiversity around their farms, they will not have to deal with that problem.

That brings me to pollinators. With healthy varieties of flowers and grasses, we get a healthy variety of pollinators. We all know their job is so important that no food would be grown in this country if we did not take care of them.That is it. We will not be able to grow food if we do not get this right. I will draw attention to another great solution, that of the Irish Seed Savers Association. The main objective of this organisation is to conserve Ireland's very special and threatened plant genetic resource. I have been fortunate enough to visit the organisation and to get seeds from it. I do not have a green finger but if one takes any of this group's seeds and put them in good soil, one will get food. It is not a big challenge if one has the right seeds in the right place. This group's work focuses on the preservation of heirloom and heritage food crops that are suitable for Ireland's unique growing conditions, which makes it easier to grow its seeds. The Irish Seed Savers Association maintains the country's public seed bank, which includes more than 600 varieties of seeds which are not commercially available.

We all know about the big multinationals that are producing seeds which will never reseed, meaning farmers cannot save their own seed and have to buy it. I remember being involved in Genetic Concern many years ago. A doctor from University Hospital Limerick joined the campaign because the people in her village had never had to save seed until a certain big company, which I will not mention today, came along and gave free seed to the farmers without telling them that, when it came time to save the seed, there would be no seed to save. This is why I wanted to mention the Irish Seed Savers Association. What it does is so important. We must not give power away to the multinationals as regards how we grow our food.

I will give the Minister some examples, although I do not have up-to-date ones. In 2017, Ireland, the land of the spud, imported 72,000 tonnes of potatoes, 44,000 tonnes of which came from Britain. We imported 47,000 tonnes of onions, 29,000 tonnes of tomatoes, 23,000 tonnes of cabbage and 15,000 tonnes of lettuce. These are probably the five easiest things to grow in this country. The total value of these imports was €175 million. This is money we sent out of this country. I raise this issue because, the better our biodiversity, the easier it is to grow this food here in Ireland. It is madness. We have to make it easier to grow food and without biodiversity that becomes more of a challenge.

I will now move from our fields to our hedges. Ireland was once entirely forested. I remember my father telling me when I was a child that Brian Ború could go from one end of Ireland to the other without putting a foot on the ground. Sadly, that is not true today. A great lecturer from Macroom, Ted Cook, told me that, when the trees were cut, not only did the humans have to take shelter but the animals, insects and birds had to flee. To where did they flee? They fled to our hedgerows. We have the best hedgerow system in all of Europe but if we do not manage it properly that will no longer be the case. Living in a small area in which the roads are narrow, I believe there is a need for proper hedge management and hedge trimming, but I do not agree with hedge butchery. It is really important that the Government come together to introduce supports for proper hedge management. Ted Cook says it very well when he says that a hedgerow is like a high-rise block of flats with different species and types of animals living on every level. That really struck home with me. He says that if one wipes out the top layers or butchers 2 m in, one wipes out the habitat of all of those animals and plants. This is something with which we need to deal. It is controversial but it must still be done. I do not ask that they be let grow wild everywhere, but we have to find a balance. Nature is all about balance.

If I am to move on from hedges, I have to go to the bogs. Some 21% of our land is peatland. That represents approximately 1.5 million ha, 80% of which is degraded. These bogs emit more than 10% of all our country's greenhouse gases. It would cost €1.5 billion to restore them. The Republic of Ireland has 8% of the entire world's blanket bogs. We are standing on a world-class ecosystem, or at least what could be one. Peatlands store four times more carbon than tropical rainforests. Let us take that seriously and prioritise our bogs.

I did not really get the whole bog thing as a child. I was reared cutting turf and making gróigeáns. It was back-breaking work. We were given out to and were not allowed mess because we had to get the turf in. I only got it when visiting new projects such as Scohaboy bog in Cloughjordan, which has developed into an amazing place and amenity for local people. The farmers flocked together with Gearóid Ó Foighil and the community to create this amazing space. I now value bogs in a whole new way.

I will move onto forests and talk about a friend of mine who recycled 500,000 cans 30 years ago. We were talking about biodiversity 30 years ago. He used the money from these cans to buy native woodlands and planted trees with children from different schools.He planted the trees with the children in the schools, and I visited the schools with him. The children kept asking why, if trees are so important, are the Government and the grown-ups not planting lots of them. I thought that was a great question. However, now I see that all Government and Opposition parties are in agreement that there is a biodiversity and climate emergency, and that now is the time to act to make the solutions I have mentioned not an exception but the norm.