Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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213. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the 4th National Biodiversity Plan; when it will be published; when the public consultation will commence given that it was due in May 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25875/22]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan (NBAP) will set the national biodiversity agenda for the period 2023-2027.

The Plan will aim to improve the governance of biodiversity in Ireland so that we can better respond to the biodiversity crisis, building on the successes of the third NBAP and meeting the implementation challenges it faced. The Plan will also address the connections between biodiversity and climate change, and the need to enhance the evidence base for biodiversity conservation policy and practice.

The Plan has been in development since October 2021. The first phase of work involved an extensive review of national, European, and international policies, strategies, legislation and science relating to biodiversity. This review helped to inform a first draft of the Plan, which was circulated to an initial group of stakeholders, including the Biodiversity Forum, the Biodiversity Working Group, Government Departments and organisations that are likely to be involved in implementing the Plan.

Stakeholder engagement has been in the form of exploratory discussions, surveys, and detailed workshops. The feedback from this first group of stakeholders is currently being incorporated into a second draft of the NBAP. The 2022 National Biodiversity Conference in June will form a key element of public and cross-sector outreach, and the outputs from conference discussions will help to inform further refinement of the Plan, which will be issued for public consultation later in 2022. 

The final version of the Plan will be published in early 2023, to align with the outcomes of the Convention for Biological Diversity COP 15 and to allow the recommendations of the ongoing Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss to be reviewed and incorporated where appropriate.