Wildlife Rehabilitation Support Scheme: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-29 ============================================================ Patricia Stephenson (SD), Labour Panel We are living in a moment when protecting wildlife and biodiversity is not something we have to worry about in the distant future; we need to think about it now. We are living in an environmental, biodiversity and ecology emergency. A new report from the independent advisory committee on nature restoration shows that 90% of our habitats are now in unfavourable conditions for wildlife. It is an appalling figure. It will take a monumental effort from Government, NGOs, across civil society and a cross-party approach to row back on this horrendous figure. We need to seriously work collectively to reverse and restore nature and support biodiversity due to the loss of habitat and the pollution we have seen. A big question is also around the marine protected areas Bill. We have seen the designation of marine protected areas but we have not seen any action or protection with that. The Government is committed to protecting 30% of our seas by 2030 but we are lagging behind that substantially; only about 10% has been done to date. It is in the context of how bad things are that I thank Senator Noonan for bringing this forward. We all know too well that biodiversity and nature are in serious deep decline but the report form the indecent advisory committee sharpens that greatly. The motion asks for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to take action. A core element of that is multi-annual funding to support the work of rehabilitation centres. Revenue from fines collected for wildlife crime would fund a lot of these support schemes. Adequate funding of wildlife services is a crucial investment for the island. We cannot continue to rely only on the organisations that do such great work, much of which is voluntary. We know about fundraising challenges for wildlife centres; they are struggling to keep their doors open despite how important the work they do is. The volunteer efforts of those caring for wildlife and their fundraising efforts are heroic in the face of how much decline we have seen and the severe habitat destruction. There is often an over-reliance on the voluntary sector. When I say voluntary, a lot of these people are high professionalised and skilled and might have several layers of qualifications and degrees to do this work yet they are not fully supported. The professionalisation, experience and expertise they have in this area are not matched or recognised by the Government. Senator Noonan reminds us that staff in wildlife centres, paid or voluntary, work around the clock. Caring for wildlife is not a Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. job. It is 24 hours, seven days a week. People working in wildlife care see some of the most heartbreaking and distressing cases of animal cruelty as well. It is very much not for the faint-hearted. They also have the incredible privilege of releasing animals back to nature and their natural habitat and nursing them back to health. It is important to acknowledge the work they do in restoration, advocacy and education. In Kilkenny we have Keep Kilkenny Beautiful, which does huge work on invasive species such as Japanese knotweed, Himalayan balsam and giant hogweed. These species are really problematic for local ecosystems. They damage the habitats of birds, bees, fish, sea life and river life. They are invasive and they are quietly choking our natural environment. They spread fast and crowd out native plants. This has an ongoing effect on birds, insects and the wider ecosystem. They also erode riverbanks and in some cases pose quite a serious risk to people. Without the dedication of these groups, our wildlife would be completely on its own trying to survive in a world that does not recognise its significance or right to share all spaces in communities and towns. There is hope - unprecedented levels of public awareness are helping to support these projects and their funding to undo some of the decline in the natural world. We all know the value of wild spaces whether it is because we walk our dogs in the countryside, go to the beach or love listening to birdsong early in the morning but we take it for granted. If we do not actively protect it, we will lose it. It is slightly trite but people give the example of the car being covered in insects after a long journey on the motorway ten or 20 years ago. We do not see that any more because the insects are not there because they are dying. That is a significant everyday marker of how our ecosystem is being damaged. We need to do so much more to protect it. Protecting our wildlife and the environment in which we live is about safeguarding spaces, safeguarding moments that enrich our daily lives and safeguarding the future for future generations of young people who will come after us. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-29