Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I reiterate the point made by my colleague about the cut in the VAT rate to 9%. I would question giving a handout to Starbucks when many of our small, independent businesses are in real trouble. A targeted scheme such as a rates rebate for smaller businesses would have been more effective.

I welcome the commitment to make the basic income scheme a permanent one. It was introduced by my colleague the then Minister, Catherine Martin.

I wish to speak briefly to the areas within my remit as my party's spokesperson for nature, heritage, agriculture and the marine. In particular, I want to focus on the non-commitment of the moneys that were supposed to be there for the nature fund. They seem to be gone. They disappeared from the national development plan announcement earlier this year and they are not in the budget. While there is additional money for the ACRES scheme, I cannot see money anywhere for the nature restoration fund. Where is the money to restore nature going to come from? Farmers are going to walk away from this process unless the money is there.

I welcome the general uplift in the nature budget. I would like to have a breakdown of the funding provided because there is some disparity between the Department's announcement of €256 million versus €196 million in the Vote in the budget pack.

The additional funding for the National Parks and Wildlife Service is welcome but we have to remember that this is an organisation that is now twice the size it was in 2020. It also has two new national parks, a lot more nature reserves and a lot of land that we have purchased in recent years. The NPWS has to implement a national nature restoration plan and make serious commitments on the protection of our habitats and species right across the country.

A seriously worsening water quality situation has been highlighted by the Lady's Island case and also the devastating fish kill in the Blackwater. Where is the extra money and funding to implement the water action plan?

Is there a funding commitment for the national biodiversity data centre. I do not see it there.

The Heritage Council has received a 3% uplift. That will seriously impact its ability to deliver on programmes and its very popular community grant schemes. The budgets for the built and archaeological heritage services and the national monuments services have both remained virtually static. The uplift there was very small, despite the huge increase in demand for services and traditional skills, as part of the community monuments fund and the various grant schemes the council administers.

Earlier this morning a number of us, including the Acting Chair, met with Jude Sherry and Frank O'Connor outside the gates of Leinster House. They were there to mark World Vacant Homes Day.There are enough houses in this country to meet quite a lot of the demand that is there, in public housing and housing generally. I welcome the moving of the collection of the residential zone land tax to Revenue. That was brought forward in a Bill the cross-party group brought here earlier this year. I welcome that and the living cities initiative but simply not enough is being done to tackle vacancy and dereliction. There is certainly not enough in the budget to meet the commitment to try to unlock the potential in the tens of thousands of vacant properties right across the country.