I welcome the opportunity to contribute to statements on National Biodiversity Week. Across the country this week, hundreds of free events are bringing people into contact with nature on their doorstep. These events include guided walks, photography competitions, scavenger hunts and farm visits. It is a chance to learn, enjoy and be reminded that nature is not a backdrop to our lives but the foundation. Fianna Fáil has an enduring legacy in this area. It was a Fianna Fáil-led Government with Charles Haughey as Taoiseach that introduced the Environmental Protection Agency Act, which established the EPA. Protecting the natural environment, air quality and wildlife was an issue that Charles Haughey championed in this House as far back as 1972 and we continue to take that legacy seriously. In budget 2026, the Minister of State secured a 20% increase in funding for the NPWS bringing its core funding above the €100-million threshold for the first time. Staffing at the NPWS has grown by 68% since 2020 and last December, the Minister of State published the Article 17 report on Ireland's protected habitats and species. Three weeks ago, he received 46 policy recommendations from the independent advisory committee on Ireland's natural restoration plan. That draft plan is due to go to the European Commission by 1 September. This is the most significant single act of restoration planning ever undertaken in this country and the work is being done from the bottom up. Farmers, fishers, foresters and local communities are all engaged and I welcome this progress but the Article 17 report is honest about where we stand. A total of 90% of Ireland's protected habitats are in unfavourable status while 51% are deteriorating. The Minister of State was right to say we cannot lose hope because where we act, we see results such as peatlands recovering, the otter and pinemartin thriving and hay meadows expanding through the all-Ireland pollinator plan but the gap between what nature needs and what nature is getting remains very wide and closing that gap is the test for all of us. In my constituency of Dún Laoghaire, that work is happening close to home. The council's second county biodiversity action plan is being delivered in partnership with BirdWatch Ireland, Coastwatch Ireland and others. As chair of the strategic policy committee many moons ago, I brought in the county's first pollinating plan so this is a very welcome new plan by the council. The tern project on Dalkey Island also helped protect breeding sea birds on one of the most important coast line sites in our constituency. The eco grazing project at Fern Hill is restoring a working wildflower meadow through which local children walk every weekend. Beekeepers are doing great work to support pollinating across the county and indeed the country. In Cherrywood, an orchid-rich grassland was translocated ahead of the development in that area and is now flowering again with over 200 stems of orchid recorded since then. Booterstown Marsh in my constituency continues to be studied and the county's invasive alien species action plan is treating giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed and the American skunk cabbage on roadsides and in our parklands. Our coast is also home to something that belongs to the whole country. Dublin Bay is a UNESCO biosphere - the only biosphere reserve in the world that contains a national capital city. Through the Dublin Bay biosphere conservation and research strategy, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Fingal County Council and Dublin City Council are working as one to protect the bays' salt marshes, the dune systems, Brent geese and the harbour porpoises and terns. Last week, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council launched a new project at Dún Laoghaire Baths called UrbanDip, which is a partnership with DCU that is fully funded by the European Regional Development Fund. UrbanDip combines low sensors with an AI model that forecasts bathing water quality in near real time. Traditional sampling takes between 24 to 48 hours as many sea swimmers would know but UrbanDip is trying to close the information gap and is one of only three pilot sites across Europe. When I welcomed the reopening of the baths in this House in 2022, I called for such real-time information for swimmers so UrbanDip is exactly the kind of innovation we need and I commend the council and DCU on getting it off the ground. Nature is not a problem to be managed. It is a system to which we belong. National Biodiversity Week is a reminder of that and the work happening in Dún Laoghaire is a reminder that responsibility is local as much as it is national.

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