Cabinet Committees
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I thank the Deputy. We are on the one page in respect of that. I will talk to the Minister about that and ask him to talk to the Deputy.
In response to Deputy Whitmore's question, I am working with the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan. The plan has been recently concluded, chaired by Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin. It is a fine, comprehensive plan that lays out a roadmap to preserve and enhance our biodiversity and habitats. I have met with the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Minister of State, and they have a plan on how the funding can be built up but it will not all be spent immediately or in one year. We are making progress. We have to have further discussions within Government to try to earmark over the next five years allocations of money from the nature fund for the implementation of this plan. That is the work I have under way. I know the Minister of State is working strongly with us and the relevant Ministers to bring that over the line.
We have established the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. Some €2 billion went to the metro initially, and probably more. We also need to do funding for nature. Some of the good European Union projects will come to an end. They have been very effective. I refer to the lapwing and others. We are making a lot of progress as well on some fronts but we need to do it on a sustained basis over the next decade or so. There has to be a sustainable funding framework to enable us to restore biodiversity and really make progress. That will have benefits for farmers as well. It is a way of supplementing income for farmers, particularly on the western seaboard, in the north west and so on. I see a lot of potential here for harmony. Farmers signed up to this as well. The number of non-governmental organisations that endorsed the plan was also remarkable.
Deputy O'Rourke talked about the need for investment. There is a plan there for investment in Duleek and Stamullen, he said, and we will certainly work to activate that plan and to make sure to prioritise the funding there. The investment is planned for there. As the Deputy knows, the Minister, Deputy Jack Chambers, has been working on faster delivery of infrastructure and so forth to make sure things get done much more quickly.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09