Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Like others, I welcome the motion and the opportunity to discuss the biodiversity crisis. It is a crisis we discussed at some length in this House in various debates over the course of the previous Oireachtas, including on the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill and the Heritage Act, because it cuts across so much of our policy in Ireland.

It is always useful at the beginning of any discussion on biodiversity to reflect on how extraordinarily fortunate we are to be living on the only known planet with life. It is a planet on which, if one considers the extraordinary diversity of life in any acre of peatland or rainforest, there is an extraordinary and impossible complexity of life. It is an extraordinary mark of shame that over the past century, humans have been stripping the colour, texture, voice, diversity, sound and richness of that complexity out of the environments we occupy. The evidence is there in the massive escalation in the loss of habitat and of species. I will not go into all of the figures because they are comprehensively discussed in this amendment. It mentions the fact that 500,000 species face extinction and that more than half of our native bird species are either on the red or amber list of endangerment.

This motion could be stronger on how we respond to that crisis and perhaps the Minister of State will address these issues in her response. I acknowledge a positive measure in the motion in that it recognises that biodiversity is not just important for the economy but that it is important for humanity in the wider sense as well as spiritually and morally. That is recognised in the motion. When we come to the actions in this motion, however, it does not say enough about what we can do. If this is a crisis, and we recognised that it was in 2018 while some people recognised it long before that, then action needs to be taken. While there are many proposals relating to measurement and future strategy in this motion, there is no commitment to action and to use every tool we have.

I am concerned, for example, that when we look to the commitment to moving towards a better forestry strategy, the strategy is referenced in the Sinn Féin amendment but it is not directly referenced in the motion. We are due to have a new forestry strategy in Ireland, starting next January. Surely this is an opportunity to genuinely commit to placing biodiversity at the centre of that. I will mention a concerning indictment of our strategy. The recent "Spruced Up" article by Niall Sargent and Noteworthy informed us that there have only been three environmental impact assessments relating to the 17,000 afforestation licences that have issued since 2010. The environmental impact assessment is a tool we already have. It should be used robustly and at every opportunity and it should not be something we seek to avoid or be an unnecessary hurdle that we try to evade wherever we can. The Government can immediately commit to using the environmental impact assessment tool more widely and robustly. We have tools in the directives from Europe on birds, habitats and water. Again, we need an active and robust engagement on using them. It was mentioned that Europe would guide us but we can also guide Europe. I hope we will have an indication today of an intention for Ireland to push back strongly on the proposals in the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, to diminish opportunities for countries to set a value on ecological care, biodiversity work and that custodianship, which is so important. We need to have a robust challenge from Ireland to a CAP that goes against the vision of a green Europe. We also need to hear that Ireland will not seek a derogation under the nitrates directive. If we are concerned about nitrogen in our soil, one thing we can do is stop making a special exception to allow us to use even more of it.

On hedgerows, we had a system under the heritage Bill, which was dismantled. It is fine to conduct a hedgerow survey but we also need to amend the heritage Bill, which allows landowners to personally interpret the Roads Act 1993 without any reference to, or engagement with, local councils, meaning we do not know what is happening with our hedgerows. We cannot stand over that.

I welcome the reference to the national pollinator strategy in the motion and the proposal for a national soil strategy.

Let us make them statutory; not simply an aspirational guide but something concrete that needs to be reflected in planning and in local authority strategies at both urban and rural levels.

There is another issue at play here, although I did not submit an amendment on it because I am hoping the Minister of State will clarify her intentions. The motion refers to farmers as "the custodians". I accept that farmers and people across rural Ireland are some of the most passionate advocates on behalf of the environment and our ecology but they are not "the" custodians alone. Certainly they are custodians but we are all custodians. People in rural and urban Ireland, public representatives, members of BirdWatch Ireland, the beekeepers of Ireland, members of Butterfly Conservation Ireland and so many others are also custodians. I am concerned about the suggestion of a Citizens' Assembly to motivate people and to channel the individual ingenuity of citizenry because we cannot put this all on citizens and say the public needs to do more. Part of citizenry is recourse to justice and it is really disappointing that in the recent forestry debate we had a framing of those citizens who seek to do the work the State has not always done in the area of environmental scrutiny as vexatious and problematic. We need to celebrate citizens who step up but we cannot leave it to them alone. The State needs to use all of its powers and tools.

I recognise that this is a positive marker but let us translate it into concrete policy actions at every level. Let us also see in the context of our land use strategy that biodiversity is not simply a subsection of farming but something far wider. It is not, as was very eloquently described, simply about services. One line from the climate talks in Madrid last year still stays with me. An investor spoke about the exciting potential in trees and said that "trees are the best thing we have invented yet". There is a certain hubris in that. Humans did not invent trees and they are not simply reducible to vehicles for storing carbon, sources of fuel or building materials. It is a concern that so often we hear of the same tree supposedly performing all three functions. The tree, all of the wide diversity in nature and all of the ecological beauty that is there are things we cannot create. We can only nurture, protect, encourage and support nature through rewilding, rewetting and the restoration of habitats. We can stop being part of the problem and start being part of the framing of a positive solution but if it is lost, it is lost forever. I support the motion and several of the amendments thereto.

It is always useful at the beginning of any discussion on biodiversity to reflect on how extraordinarily fortunate we are to be living on the only known planet with life. It is a planet on which, if one considers the extraordinary diversity of life in any acre of peatland or rainforest, there is an extraordinary and impossible complexity of life. It is an extraordinary mark of shame that over the past century, humans have been stripping the colour, texture, voice, diversity, sound and richness of that complexity out of the environments we occupy. The evidence is there in the massive escalation in the loss of habitat and of species. I will not go into all of the figures because they are comprehensively discussed in this amendment. It mentions the fact that 500,000 species face extinction and that more than half of our native bird species are either on the red or amber list of endangerment.

This motion could be stronger on how we respond to that crisis and perhaps the Minister of State will address these issues in her response. I acknowledge a positive measure in the motion in that it recognises that biodiversity is not just important for the economy but that it is important for humanity in the wider sense as well as spiritually and morally. That is recognised in the motion. When we come to the actions in this motion, however, it does not say enough about what we can do. If this is a crisis, and we recognised that it was in 2018 while some people recognised it long before that, then action needs to be taken. While there are many proposals relating to measurement and future strategy in this motion, there is no commitment to action and to use every tool we have.

I am concerned, for example, that when we look to the commitment to moving towards a better forestry strategy, the strategy is referenced in the Sinn Féin amendment but it is not directly referenced in the motion. We are due to have a new forestry strategy in Ireland, starting next January. Surely this is an opportunity to genuinely commit to placing biodiversity at the centre of that. I will mention a concerning indictment of our strategy. The recent "Spruced Up" article by Niall Sargent and Noteworthy informed us that there have only been three environmental impact assessments relating to the 17,000 afforestation licences that have issued since 2010. The environmental impact assessment is a tool we already have. It should be used robustly and at every opportunity and it should not be something we seek to avoid or be an unnecessary hurdle that we try to evade wherever we can. The Government can immediately commit to using the environmental impact assessment tool more widely and robustly. We have tools in the directives from Europe on birds, habitats and water. Again, we need an active and robust engagement on using them. It was mentioned that Europe would guide us but we can also guide Europe. I hope we will have an indication today of an intention for Ireland to push back strongly on the proposals in the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, to diminish opportunities for countries to set a value on ecological care, biodiversity work and that custodianship, which is so important. We need to have a robust challenge from Ireland to a CAP that goes against the vision of a green Europe. We also need to hear that Ireland will not seek a derogation under the nitrates directive. If we are concerned about nitrogen in our soil, one thing we can do is stop making a special exception to allow us to use even more of it.

On hedgerows, we had a system under the heritage Bill, which was dismantled. It is fine to conduct a hedgerow survey but we also need to amend the heritage Bill, which allows landowners to personally interpret the Roads Act 1993 without any reference to, or engagement with, local councils, meaning we do not know what is happening with our hedgerows. We cannot stand over that.

I welcome the reference to the national pollinator strategy in the motion and the proposal for a national soil strategy.Let us make them statutory; not simply an aspirational guide but something concrete that needs to be reflected in planning and in local authority strategies at both urban and rural levels.

There is another issue at play here, although I did not submit an amendment on it because I am hoping the Minister of State will clarify her intentions. The motion refers to farmers as "the custodians". I accept that farmers and people across rural Ireland are some of the most passionate advocates on behalf of the environment and our ecology but they are not "the" custodians alone. Certainly they are custodians but we are all custodians. People in rural and urban Ireland, public representatives, members of BirdWatch Ireland, the beekeepers of Ireland, members of Butterfly Conservation Ireland and so many others are also custodians. I am concerned about the suggestion of a Citizens' Assembly to motivate people and to channel the individual ingenuity of citizenry because we cannot put this all on citizens and say the public needs to do more. Part of citizenry is recourse to justice and it is really disappointing that in the recent forestry debate we had a framing of those citizens who seek to do the work the State has not always done in the area of environmental scrutiny as vexatious and problematic. We need to celebrate citizens who step up but we cannot leave it to them alone. The State needs to use all of its powers and tools.

I recognise that this is a positive marker but let us translate it into concrete policy actions at every level. Let us also see in the context of our land use strategy that biodiversity is not simply a subsection of farming but something far wider. It is not, as was very eloquently described, simply about services. One line from the climate talks in Madrid last year still stays with me. An investor spoke about the exciting potential in trees and said that "trees are the best thing we have invented yet". There is a certain hubris in that. Humans did not invent trees and they are not simply reducible to vehicles for storing carbon, sources of fuel or building materials. It is a concern that so often we hear of the same tree supposedly performing all three functions. The tree, all of the wide diversity in nature and all of the ecological beauty that is there are things we cannot create. We can only nurture, protect, encourage and support nature through rewilding, rewetting and the restoration of habitats. We can stop being part of the problem and start being part of the framing of a positive solution but if it is lost, it is lost forever. I support the motion and several of the amendments thereto.