Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Senator Hackett. We know each other from Offaly and also from Galway. Like the Minister of State, who is a farmer, I also come from a farming background. I grew up on a farm, worked on a farm and got the green certificate. The amount of research that has been done in the past ten to 20 years that shows us the loss of wildlife and habitats is shocking.

It is crucially important to maintain wildlife and increase what we have. I believe local authorities have a crucial role to play in doing that. I mentioned my background and how I came to be involved in public representation in an earlier discussion. It was related to the environmental impact of the development of a waste transfer station in the Ballinasloe area. The impact was on the waterways in low-lying floodplains.We came together as a community group to challenge the local authority and ensure that the habitats directive was upheld. I appreciate that, as mentioned in the motion, the status of protected natural habitats is under threat. I call on the Minister of State to consider providing, through future legislation, extra resources for the underfunded and under-resourced environmental section in each local authority. Individuals and groups, including community groups, are working together to protect the environment in which they live. We must ensure that they are supported in doing so but also that it is not the case that individuals must come together to fight against local authorities or groups that have planning unfavourable to protecting the environment.

Protecting wildlife is important. The River Suck has a special protection area, SPA. The birds directive covers a number of birds there, including the Whooper swan. As Senator Martin mentioned, the marsh fritillary butterfly is the only protected butterfly in the EU. It is found in Ballinasloe exactly where the low-lying floodplains are. The devil's-bit scabious is a food plant for it. How do we protect the devil's-bit scabious in our unique boglands?

I pay tribute to the groups that are doing great work. The Living Bog is protecting many of our raised bogs, for example, in Mountbellew. There are also a number of raised bogs in Roscommon. Such groups are doing their best to protect what is there and ensure that people can enjoy the resources and amenities on our doorsteps.

As well as making sure that we have regulations and biodiversity plans, we must bring our community groups with us. We must ensure that people can see the amenities, resources and wildlife habitats if we are to be able to maintain them in the long term, for example, walkways, cycleways and greenways that pass through the areas in a way that protects the land and the species, and if people are to know the value in keeping what we have.

Speaking as someone from a farming background, I take on board Senator Lombard's point about the importance of the generational aspect for farmers and bringing them with us. I come from an area where there are suckler farmers and many small farms, and off-farm income is crucial. Much of that income comes from ecotourism. I was pleased to see from a recent Teagasc presentation on using less technology and having lower emissions, including from slurry, that so much work was being done and that farmers were leading in terms of technology to ensure that we would be able to meet our European requirements. I call on the Minister of State to take into account the work that farmers are doing in leading the charge and to consider funding our local authorities to ensure that areas that are currently protected remain so and that, crucially, the number of wildlife habitats on publicly owned lands is increased. Our community group is going through all of that right now, which just shows that individuals and community groups have to fight hard.