Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

358. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will report on the youth biodiversity assembly organised through various networks of Comhairlí na nÓg; if the outcome of the youth biodiversity assembly will lead into the wider Citizen’s Assembly on Biodiversity which is due to take place in March 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9499/22]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government recently agreed to the establishment of a Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity, the inaugural meetings of which are planned for April 2022.

The terms of reference for the Citizens' Assembly on biodiversity derive from, and are consistent with, the resolution passed by Dáil Éireann in May 2019 which declared a climate and biodiversity emergency and called for a citizens' assembly to examine how the State can improve its response to the issue of biodiversity loss.

Concurrently, work is underway in my Department on establishing a young peoples' assembly on biodiversity. I consider it crucial that the views of our young people are properly and carefully considered in determining how we approach the biodiversity crisis in the coming years.

In this context, I am examining ways to best facilitate a mutually constructive dialogue between the Citizens' Assembly and the young peoples' assembly, details of which will be announced in the coming weeks.