This week I called on the Government to use some of the new €3 billion Climate Action and Nature Restoration Fund to expand the national park in Wicklow. Thank you to the Wicklow Times, Wicklow People and East Coast FM for covering it, you can hear my conversation with Declan Meehan on East Coast FM here.

The announcement of a new dedicated fund for climate action and nature restoration in this year's budget is welcome. But it makes no sense that this fund won’t be available until 2026. We’re several years into a climate and biodiversity crisis, we needed these funds yesterday, not three years from now.

If the Government is serious about nature restoration they need to make this fund available immediately. As everyone who has signed this petition knows, I have a project ready to go on State land, which has the potential to be one of the biggest in the country, and 3,000 of you have already backed it. In fact, it would cost the State very little from that fund, as all of the land is already owned by us, the public, and would just mean transferring its management from the state agencies Coillte to the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

A couple of weeks ago the Government announced a new National Park for Ireland with the purchase of the former Dowth Estate in Meath. But this piece of land is only a mere 223 hectares in size. Should it even be called a National Park? As it stands, our National Parks don’t stand up well internationally when compared in size. Our largest, the Wicklow Mountains, at 23,000 hectares, is smaller than the UK’s smallest, The Broads, at 30,300 hectares. Their largest is Cairngorms in Scotland, which is a staggering 452,800 hectares.

If nature is to recover on this island, if species are to come back from the brink of extinction and others are to be re-introduced, they need significant amount of space. The plan I’ve put forward would create this, it would involve rewilding and restoring approximately nine valleys throughout the Wicklow Mountains to be added to the iconic Glendalough valley. It would create a flagship nature restoration project that would be huge value for money from this new dedicated fund.

The reason my plan has got so much local support here in Wicklow is not just because we are a county of nature-lovers, but because people can see the huge opportunity it presents for recreation, eco-tourism and the local economy.

Thank you for signing and showing your support for this campaign. I will keep advocating for it for as long as it takes to become a reality!