Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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117. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the way in which a local authority can apply for funding to employ a full-time biodiversity officer; the number of officers that he proposes to be employed nationally; and the local authorities that currently employ a biodiversity officer in tabular form. [50162/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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My Department is responsible for the implementation of a range of legislation and policy relating to biodiversity and nature in Ireland; this does not include the employment of biodiversity officers, which falls under section 159 of the Local Government Act 2001, within the remit of each Local Authority. Currently, there are five biodiversity officers employed in the following local authorities:

Fingal County Council

Wexford County Council

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council

Dublin City Council

Kerry County Council

In addition, the County Heritage Officer Network Programme, run in partnership between the Heritage Council and local authorities, employs a heritage officer in each Local Authority. Heritage officers work with other sections within the local authorities to develop policies and projects which highlight the importance of our natural and built heritage when planning for the future. They co-ordinate and implement County Heritage Plans and work with local environmental and community groups to organise events throughout the year.

Ensuring that all 31 local authorities have a sufficient number of biodiversity and heritage officers among their staff complement is one of the measures outlined in the Programme for Government to ensure that agencies who play a key role in protecting our biodiversity and natural heritage have the resources to deliver on their mandate. The National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department is involved in ongoing work in formulating a Biodiversity Officer programme, to be considered by Local Authorities in the context of their existing commitments, the overall resources available to the Government and the demands on those resources.