As someone who comes from a rural community, the biodiversity crisis facing Ireland is not some abstract concern, it is a visible reality, one that I have watched worsen decade by decade. It is now seven years since a biodiversity emergency was declared in Ireland, yet we are still not acting with the urgency that declaration demands. All stakeholders across the sector - especially in rural communities - need to come together and work collectively on it. The Government must accept that rural Ireland is not just part of the solution. Rural Ireland must be the driving force in combating this crisis and pulling our habitats back from the brink of destruction. The findings make for grim reading. Some 90% of Ireland's habitats are now in an inadequate or poor state. When it comes to forestry coverage, we are far below the EU average, which sits at around 35%, while Ireland is barely over 10%. The Government has a duty to enhance the standing of our special protection areas. Let us take the Wicklow Mountains special area of conservation - in particular, Lugnaquilla. Despite being a hugely popular location, its conservation status is rated as unfavourable to bad. The Government had a prime opportunity to buy over 1,500 acres of land, including Lugnaquilla, for just €2 million. We can imagine what a national project that would have been. It would have been an opportunity to show ambition, restore biodiversity and show people what is truly possible. Calendar farming does not always work. In fact, it can be very risky. Farmers having to spread slurry in heavy rain just because of the date does not help our water quality. Dates need to be flexible. Slurry spreading should be set by weather conditions only. ACRES has, overall, been a positive step. It supports farmers to restore and strengthen biodiversity in their local area. However, issues relating to payment with long, unacceptable delays that left farmers out of pocket have damaged the willingness of farmers to sign up to the scheme. We cannot afford to lose their trust. The penny-pinching mindset of the Government when it comes to our natural environment needs to be called out. Ireland invests less than half the EU average of its GDP in nature. That is truly shocking for an island of such natural beauty. How we view the environment and biodiversity cannot be confined by political boundaries. Climate does not respect borders. We need to act collectively, North and South. We must ensure that those we engage with internationally, through trade agreements, are not doing untold damage to our shared environment. Everyone was shocked and horrified by the scenes of complete and utter devastation of the rainforest, which was cleared to create more agricultural land to produce more beef and food products for the EU, China, and the United States. The EU cannot turn a blind eye to destructive acts on the international stage-----

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-----not when the cost is our collective well-being.

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