Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this Commencement matter. I will try to outline the trajectory in terms of the report referenced in The Sunday Timesand where it fits into the bigger piece of work that we have been doing over the last number of months. My portfolio as Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform is an expansive one. The top priority for me on becoming Minister of State was to restore heritage funding, placing nature, heritage and biodiversity at the heart of what this Government does well, taking a whole-of-government approach.

As the Senator has outlined, the NPWS is a crucial and important service that is mandated with the protection, conservation and presentation of our natural heritage, including the variety of birds, mammals, invertebrates, fungi and plants that combine in the dynamic ecosystems that give us vital services that society and the economy depend on, such as soil fertility, water purification, carbon sequestration and storage, and of course, that sense of peace and wonder that so many of us enjoy when we experience nature. In 2019, we learned that globally many of our protected habitats were of poor or inadequate status and that almost half were declining. That same year, the Dáil declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. At that time NPWS resourcing was not sufficient to address the challenge that lay ahead with the level of urgency that was required.

I determined that a hallmark of my tenure as Minister of State would be to leave a positive legacy for biodiversity in Ireland, to deliver on the Government's unprecedented ambition for nature and respond comprehensively to the programme for Government commitment to strengthen the NPWS, improve its effectiveness and make it the voice for nature that we need it to be. The primary determinant in all of that is resourcing. I secured additional moneys in the 2020 July stimulus, significantly increased NPWS funding by almost 50% in budget 2021, and in October 2021 as part of the budget, I announced that NPWS funding would increase yet again to over €47 million in 2022, a total increase of 64% since I became Minister of State. That brought it back up to pre-financial crisis levels in terms of staffing and resources.

The funding secured in successive Estimates also enabled my Department to bring approved staffing at the NPWS back to its pre-2008 levels. This has led to the establishment of a new team which will focus on the protection of our special areas of conservation and special protection areas, a wildlife crime unit, a substantial cohort of new conservation rangers, as well as the recruitment of ecological and scientific expertise, field staff, guides and administrative staff. These are major achievements that are already having positive impacts. I believe that realising the totality of our shared vision for the National Parks and Wildlife Service requires further transformative action that acknowledges the past, reflects the present and renews for the future. In that regard, I am now leading on a comprehensive phased process, Review, Reflect, Renew: A Strategic Action Plan for the Future of the NPWS.

Preliminary to all of this - and as a recurring underpinning - is addressing the resourcing challenge. The orientation or stakeholder engagement part of this review process commenced in February 2021 under the direction of Professor Jane Stout and Dr. Micheal O'Cinneide. They are the authors of the report to which the Senator referred. These independent reviewers heard from over 3,000 people and groups, providing an external perspective on some specific aspects of the NPWS, and conducting an analysis of comparable organisations across Europe in order to inform a suite of recommendations. The ongoing reflect phase, led by Mr. Gerry Kearney, takes account of the outcome of the Stout and O'Cinneide work. It will synthesise the resourcing gains of the past 18 months with a detailed, expert analysis of governance, organisational structures, communications, data systems and future resourcing, and outline the NPWS's specific requirements across those areas. The final renew phase will detail the objectives and prioritised actions that will equip the NPWS to deliver on the ambitious goals, objectives and targets emerging from our programme for Government, the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, Heritage Ireland 2030 and the new national biodiversity action plan, and to be the respected voice for nature that so many have called for.