Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

313. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the review by the National Parks and Wildlife Service will be published. and if he will report on his work on this matter. [13951/22]

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

The Government is committed to a significant investment in, and a renewal of, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) as set out in the Programme for Government.

I am pleased to say that the review which will underpin this renewal has now been concluded by the independent authors, and the resulting Strategic Action Plan for renewal of the NPWS has been completed. 

This has been a multi-phase Review across three phases. The first, Review phase, involved extensive research, consultation, orientation and feedback work, and feeds into the remaining phases. Secondly, the Reflect phase considered the outcomes of this work and then synthesised the resourcing gains of the past 18 months with a detailed, expert analysis of governance, organisational structures, communications, data systems and future resourcing, and outlines the NPWS’ specific requirements across those areas. The final phase details the objectives and prioritised actions required to equip the NPWS to continue to deliver on the ambitious goals, objectives and targets emerging from our Programme for Government – Our Shared Future, the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030, Heritage Ireland 2030 and the new National Biodiversity Action Plan.

My officials are now preparing the necessary background documentation to bring the Strategic Action Plan before Government for consideration in the coming weeks, following which the Strategic Action Plan, together with the underpinning review documents, will be published. Then we will have a robust roadmap for a 21st Century NPWS, which we will proceed to implement.

None of the component parts of the Review will be disaggregated or published separately ahead of a Government decision on the Strategic Action Plan for the NPWS, which is the planned outcome of the Review process.