Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Women's choice was sorted three years ago. Can we park it please and move on and accept the reality of where we are?

I want to speak on the fact it is national biodiversity week. Perhaps we have too much variety sometimes if we look at people in the House. Every individual in the country has a part to play in the importance of biodiversity. It is a term that has been thrown around quite a lot. Not everybody gets the concept because in some ways it is very simple. It has to do with variety being important and the interdependence of all living things. It can get very complicated if we look at soil science, the vastness of the ocean and everything that goes on. I want everybody to realise they can all play a part in a small way or a big way. Unfortunately, many small ways, such as leaving a little strip of dandelions free, will not cut the mustard any longer. We are going to have to think bigger about biodiversity. It is great that people like to do small things, but I genuinely worry these small token measures will not be sufficient.

One third of our bees are under threat of extinction. Without bees we do not have fruit or vegetables growing in this country. As it is, we should be growing a lot more fruit and vegetables. We are struggling and I do not think people realise the seriousness of this. Most children in most schools all over Ireland understand biodiversity and the importance of bees and variety. I worry we have now put it on the children and the adults are not doing enough. I was in a school last week and every child put up their hand and said they were stressed and worried about climate change. This is wrong. It is not the child's responsibility, it is the adult's responsibility. We have to step up. We have to show future generations we take this seriously and we care. For the week that is in it, I ask everybody to look at biodiversity. Go onto pollinators.ieto find out more. There are brilliant resources for free. It is time for the adults to step up and take a role in the huge crisis we face.