Written answers

Thursday, 31 May 2018

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

National Biodiversity Plan

Photo of Barry CowenBarry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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260. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the status of the heritage initiatives, including Waterways Ireland biodiversity action plans and invasive species county mitigation plans, as outlined in budget 2018; the amount of the €2 million allocation that has been spent; the way in which the moneys were spent; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24216/18]

Photo of Josepha MadiganJosepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I recently announced that my Department would be accepting applications for two new funding schemes specifically aimed at local authorities. These schemes are a grant scheme to assist local authorities in implementing actions contained in the National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021 (NBAP) through biodiversity-led projects in their areas, and an additional scheme to assist local authorities in tackling invasive alien species (IAS). In their initial year, €250,000 has been allocated to the NBAP scheme and €150,000 to the IAS funding stream.

Local authorities were notified of the NBAP and IAS schemes on 08 May 2018 and 24 May 2018 respectively. The closing dates for receipt of applications is 05 June 2018 for the NBAP and 15 June 2018 for the IAS funding stream. 

Both schemes are administered by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department and are an important part of the ongoing implementation of Ireland’s National Biodiversity Action Plan, particularly with regard to raising biodiversity awareness at the local level.

There are a number of heritage and biodiversity initiatives being implemented as part of the Waterways Ireland Heritage Plan 2016-2020 including the commission of updated baseline ecological datasets of the Royal and Grand Canal in order to inform maintenance and capital projects, commencement of Invasive Specie Strategy and Biosecurity Protocols for Waterways Ireland, the commission of 8 Digital Media Heritage features called 'Stories from the Waterways' in partnership with the County Heritage Officers and the development of a community biodiversity toolkit for waterways communities.

 The Budget allocated by Waterways Ireland to this set of initiatives for 2018 is €78,500 (some projects are still in progress and therefore all 2018 monies have not been spent yet). 

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