Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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255. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the estimated cost to establish a fund for a community led, peer-to-peer farming for nature restoration; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28020/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Incentivised community-led action by local action groups, landowners and farmers is a central plank of nature restoration, especially in an Irish context. In May 2025, I announced €2.9m in funding for 262 local biodiversity projects across all 31 local authorities through the Local Biodiversity Action Fund (LBAF), that is managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department. In addition, annual funding of €100,000 is provided by the NPWS to the Farming For Nature (FfN) initiative and one element of the FfN initiative is "the Horse’s Mouth", a farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing service to assist in delivering the right measure in the right place. The NPWS farm plan scheme is an exemplar in delivering tailored and bespoke farm plans for approx. 500 farmers, with an overall annual budget of € €2.395m.

To fulfil the requirements of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, Ireland will develop a national Nature Restoration Plan (NRP) by September 2026. The financial aspects of implementing the NRP to 2030 and beyond will be considered in that context.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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256. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the estimated cost to establish an All-Island Biodiversity Taskforce, to deal with issues of biodiversity loss in all 32 counties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28022/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Determining the cost of a task force to address biodiversity loss is inherently complex. Biodiversity spans ecosystems, species, and services that defy simple valuation. A task force must operate across research, policy, enforcement, and community action - each with variable and evolving costs. There are currently no plans to develop such a taskforce.

My Department, through the National Parks and Wildlife Service, engages on an ongoing basis with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs on matters relating to biodiversity on an all-island basis through programmes such as INTERREG VA and PEACEPLUS. Projects undertaken through the Shared Island Initiative include a Biosecurity and Invasive Species Initiative, the Shared Islands Peatland Programme and the Natura Communities project.