Ten local authorities have been awarded funding to appoint officers to deliver local measures on biodiversity.
The funding for the recruitment of these officers is being delivered by the Heritage Council and the County and City Management Association (CCMA) with the support of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
The new officers will have a range of responsibilities.
These will included:
- Developing and implementing a county biodiversity plan;
- Advising the local authority on biodiversity-related issues;
- Establishing a county biodiversity forum;
- Assisting local authority departments in integrating biodiversity into their actions and policies;
- Promoting new initiatives based on best conservation practice.
Once these appointments are made, it will bring the total number of such officers employed in local authorities to 14. Funding for a further 15 officers will be provided in future.
A full national rollout of these officers in all local authorities is expected to be completed within the next three years.
The local authorities that will be appointing officers under this programme are as follows:
- Clare County Council;
- Cork City Council;
- Galway County Council;
- Kerry County Council;
- Kildare County Council;
- Kilkenny County Council;
- Offaly County Council;
- Sligo County Council;
- Westmeath County Council;
- Wicklow County Council.
The local authorities that already have biodiversity officers are Galway City Council, Fingal County Council, Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council, and Dublin City Council.
Commenting on the appointment programme, Minster of State for heritage and electoral reform Malcolm Noonan said: “It’s fantastic to see the next tranche of biodiversity officers are now being recruited around the country.
“These ten new posts…will have an enormous impact on the ground in helping to deliver action for nature at the local level.”
The minister added: “Today’s announcement is another step in the right direction and it reflects my commitment to ensuring that [biodiversity objectives] are fulfilled and that all local authorities have a sufficient number of heritage and biodiversity officers among their staff.”