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

I thank Senators for their contributions. That is the case, as Senator Cummins said. On section 6 and the matter of satisfactory experience, while Senator Higgins called it "a general soup" of expertise, it is quite specific in that it provides for the range of expertise that will be needed on the board. Regardless of that being there or not, we have to be mindful, and the Senator mentioned COP15, that we will soon have a new national biodiversity action plan, NBAP, and the nature restoration law regulations will be coming from the EU, all of which will govern all decision-making of the board, as will the climate law, the marine protected areas legislation and the infrastructure being put in place to ensure there is good environmental governance. By law, any decision-making by board members will have to take account of the NBAP, the climate law and the nature restoration law.Quite a robust set of legislation and policies will be in place to ensure decision-making has to be governed by good environmental stewardship. I offer that by way of assurance to the Senator. In that regard, I will not be accepting this amendment as section 6 already provides for recruiting ordinary board members with environmental expertise. That is backed up by the points I have made.