Biodiversity is practically extinct in ministers' budget pronouncements 

Biodiversity got its first official outing of the day at 6.30pm in a welcome press release announcing significant funding of €47m for the National Parks and Wildlife Service

The evidence is clear and incontrovertible – Ireland's bird species are in grave danger, ecosystems are collapsing, and Ireland has repeatedly been referred to the European Court of Justice for failures in conservation measures. Picture: Ruth Wilson.

The words "biodiversity crisis" were conspicuous by their absence from the two ministerial speeches during Budget 2022 and a Department of Environment briefing with another minister and two junior ministers afterwards.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe declared the "the world is burning" as he addressed the "most pressing issue of our time", while Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said the "evidence of the climate crisis is clear for all to see".

Environment Minister Eamon Ryan, flanked by Ministers of State Hildegarde Naughton and Ossian Smyth, spoke eloquently of retrofitting homes, fuel poverty, agriculture, methane emissions, and more in a department briefing afterwards.

There was not one mention of the crisis in Ireland's biodiversity and the desperate need for intervention until I asked the question.

Communications staff in the Department of Environment – one of the better ones for engaging with a probing media, it must be said – must have nudged their counterparts in the Department of Housing, because shortly after 6.30pm, biodiversity got its first official outing of the day in a press release announcing significant funding for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

Why biodiversity falls under the remit of the Department of Housing is anyone's guess, but that's for another day. What it does suggest is that biodiversity is not taken as seriously as it should be, lumped in with heritage at the Housing Department as a bit of an afterthought.

Last month, a range of expert academics convened by the Friends of the Earth marked the Government's cards when it came to various climate-related actions. 

The scores ranged from 8.5 for waste and 7.5 for climate to 4.5 for nature and biodiversity and four for agriculture and forestry. 

The evidence is clear and incontrovertible – Ireland's bird species are in grave danger, ecosystems are collapsing, and Ireland has repeatedly been referred to the European Court of Justice for failures in conservation measures.

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Will this newly invigorated approach to climate change make a difference? Time will tell, but the efforts of Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan are to be commended.

He announced an allocation of more than €47m for the NPWS, which will allow it to beef up staffing to pre-financial crisis levels. That funding boost is an increase of 64% since he became minister in 2020, he said.

The department said the new package will strengthen capacity to restore and protect our most precious habitats and vulnerable species, including peatlands; assist in the investigation of wildlife crime; and enhance the management of national parks and nature reserves.

Crucially, it will "facilitate the establishment of an expanded habitats conservation programme, which will improve and enhance Ireland’s work under the EU Nature Directives and deliver support to more than 400 special area of conservation sites across the country".

That is encouraging progress, albeit coming from a low base. 

NPWS staff have long been lauded for stretching themselves as far as they could with the scant resources they have, and €47m is not small change – there's a long way to go, but it's a start.