Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach. Doing a national budget is very difficult, especially coming out of a Covid pandemic. Despite all we have been through, I feel positive and hopeful about this budget. That is what people need to hear at this time. Is maith an t-iománaí an fear ar an gclaí. The hurler on the ditch has the easy job but we were busy playing senior hurling when we were working very hard on this budget. I commend everyone involved, including civil servants, NGOs that made submissions, voluntary organisations, the Minister and all his staff.

There are lots of problems in lots of sectors and in this budget the Government is trying its best to deal with many of those issues. Senator Boylan remarked that there is a biodiversity emergency. She obviously did not realise what job the National Parks and Wildlife Service does given that its budget was increased by two thirds from last year. Maybe she does not know because she lives in a nice house in Dublin but where I live the whole job of the NPWS is biodiversity protection. Maybe the Senator will look up what the service's job is and be happy about what the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, did on that. There was a lot in this budget for biodiversity. That is just a point of information for the Senator.