Social Democrat TD for Wicklow, Jennifer Whitmore has again asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, if he intends to endorse the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action for a referendum that would “acknowledge the rights of nature.”
The Wicklow TD originally asked the Minister an identical question regarding a potential endorsement for such a referendum on 20 February last.
The Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action held a series of meetings to discuss The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss (CABL) report published in April 2023.
This eventually led to the Oireachtas Committee publishing its own report on the recommendations of the Citizens Assembly in December 2023. This Report contained 86 recommendations to protect biodiversity loss, including recommendations for a referendum on the matter.
In its recommendations the Committee members stated that they accept, in principle, the view that the people of Ireland be afforded an opportunity, in a referendum or referenda, “to protect our biodiversity through the incorporation of the rights of nature and/or the right to a healthy environment into Bunreacht na hÉireann (the Irish Constitution).”
This would mean that new substantive rights of nature would come into effect, including recognising nature “as a holder of legal rights, comparable to companies or people e.g. to exist, flourish/perpetuate and be restored if degraded; not to be polluted/harmed/degraded.”
The Committee further recommended that the Government begin the preparatory steps to consider a referendum or referenda within the lifetime of the current Dáil, which includes the establishment of an expert group that would have broad expertise both on a national and international basis and should work to ensure that any questions provide a balance of rights and are appropriate to Ireland’s constitutional context.
Committee members also recommended “a robust public awareness campaign in advance of any change to environmental rights/referendum on environmental rights to prevent the spread of misinformation and to encourage public debate on biodiversity.”
In the appendix section of the Committee Report, it was observed that while Government have made no decision on whether to implement the recommendation for a referendum or referenda, the Dept of Housing has stated there is an action proposed in 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan for the National Park and Wildlife Service to “explore ways in which the rights of nature could be formally recognised including constitutional change.”
The Committee also noted the view that that in 2008, Ecuador enshrined the rights of nature in its constitution and that subsequently “Ecuador has the most robust enforcement and implementation because the rights of nature have been enshrined within its constitution for 15 years.”
The Committee noted this law had been most effective with regard to cases brought by NGOs seeking to stop permit issuances before Ecuador’s constitutional court.
In his reply to Deputy Whitmore on behalf of the Minister for Housing, the Green Party Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, would only go so far as to say that The 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan 2023-2030 that was launched in January “provides for a mechanism by which the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly will be considered by Government, including an action for the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to explore the ways in which the rights of nature could be formally recognised.”
Given that the anticipated referendum on the International Patent Court has now been postponed it is almost a certainty that a referendum seeking to constitutionalise the “rights of nature” will not take place in the lifetime of this Government.