Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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640. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if she will provide a timeline for the development of her Department's specific climate change targets; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49564/18]

Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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A Biodiversity Sectoral Climate Change Adaptation Plan is a requirement of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act (2015). A draft plan was prepared earlier this year by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in my Department and circulated to the Interdepartmental Biodiversity Working Group and the independent Biodiversity Forum for consultation and review, from May to the end of July 2018.   

The draft sectoral plan was considered by a stakeholder workshop, held by my Department on the 16th October 2018. There were 40 participants at the workshop, from across various sectors including representatives of Regional Climate Change Offices and officials from NPWS. The workshop sought feedback and inputs on a number of important aspects relating to climate impacts and consequences for biodiversity and the biodiversity sector, climate change adaptation actions and also cross-sectoral linkages. The plan is now being redrafted and the revised draft Biodiversity Sectoral Climate Change Adaptation Plan will go to public consultation in Q1 2019. 

Climate adaptation planning in the biodiversity sector is a cross cutting issue, with responsibility for biodiversity protection, management and restoration spanning multiple government departments as well local authorities and non-State actors. Nonetheless, I am confident that the work being carried out by my Department, and colleagues across government, will help us meet these challenges.  

My Department is also involved in peatland restoration. Irish peatlands are a huge carbon store, containing more than 75% of all the national soil organic carbon. On average, peatlands are estimated to hold about 1,500 tons of soil carbon per hectare, i.e. about 10 times as much as a typical mineral soil. Intact  peatlands capture (sequester) carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the form of peat and vegetation, but the carbon is released back to the atmosphere if the peatland is damaged. 

The National Raised Bog Special Areas of Conservation Management Plan 2017-2022 sets out how raised bog special areas of conservation are to be managed, conserved and restored and also how the needs of turf cutters are to be addressed. It is intended to restore all designated raised bogs within 3 cycles, with the first cycle operating for the duration of the current Management Plan. Work on this programme has already begun with a €5.4m project ‘The Living Bog’ which is co-funded by the EU LIFE 2014-2020 programme.