Nessa Cosgrove (Labour)

I will not even need five minutes. The Minister of State is very welcome. I take this opportunity to give praise to my colleague Senator Noonan. I am delighted he is part of our group because, as Minister of State, he placed biodiversity and the threat of biodiversity loss firmly on the agenda within policies. His legacy will always be there and I thank him for that.

Other speakers referred to the impact of having not only biodiversity officers but heritage officers as well. The roles are all intertwined. It is really important, as the Acting Chairperson said, that the Government makes sure the funding continues and there is no inconsistency in or threat to that funding.

As someone from a coastal community, I take the opportunity of these statements on National Biodiversity Week to talk about our inland and offshore fisheries. Thus far in the lifetime of our planet, there have been at least five mass extinction events, each of which, in turn, probably took place 440 million, 365 million, 250 million, 210 million and 65 million years ago. We are all familiar with the theory that a comet caused the last mass extinction 65 million years ago. However, the four previous events were likely caused by volcanic activity and changes in oceanic chemistry such as changes in oxygen, methane and carbon dioxide levels in the deep sea.

At 99 years of age, the veteran environmentalist and film maker, David Attenborough, has just released a new film in which he shows in graphic detail the damage we are doing through overfishing, over-exploitation and the wasteful and unacceptable pillaging of life from the ocean. This is not only stripping the oceans of life we need to maintain, but the methods we use to trawl the seabed for fish and the extraction of oil and gas from wells deep under the seabed increase the release of carbon dioxide and methane into the sea, which measurably alters the chemical make-up of the water. Most marine life is extremely well adapted to the conditions it finds itself in and is not necessarily easily adaptable. A slight change in the chemical make-up of the water has a profound effect on the creatures that live in it. Having moved from the surface of the water into the air, the same CO2 and methane move into the atmosphere, adding to the levels of warming gasses and driving warmer temperatures on the earth and in the oceans. Colder oceans slow and even prevent the escape of methane gas from the seabed to the surface, while warmer oceans transport methane more quickly from seabed to surface.

As other speakers have noted, for all our actions, there is a reaction, as we are all living forms and are all connected. On the one hand, we are asking farmers in Leitrim, Sligo and Donegal to rewet their lands to trap carbon. However, we are also allowing super trawlers and fossil fuel conglomerates to play havoc with the delicate balance of ocean life as their actions accelerate the release of carbon dioxide and methane, which is 80 times more warming than CO2, into the atmosphere.David Attenborough assures us that there is hope, which is great. He describes the sea as our greatest ally against climate catastrophe. He says that the sea is able to recover and bounce back stronger than ever with remarkable speed in ways that we did not know or understand previously. This is a message that I am heartened to hear. Living in a coastal community like Sligo, I am heartened that National Biodiversity Week in Sligo later this week will recognise the importance of our inland and the care that we need to take of our inland and coastal waters. We need to heed the serious and real warnings from environmentalists that we risk being responsible for a new mass extinction but we also need to heed the message of hope. Most of all we need to act. Messages of hope will not bring about change. We as legislators can bring about change. Going back to my first point, we need to make sure the loss of biodiversity is at the forefront of any monetary decision. The impact on the environment and most importantly the impact on biodiversity should be the forefront of any of those decisions.