The Minister for Arts and Heritage has been criticised for failing to adequately protect biodiversity in the upcoming National Biodiversity Action Plan.

Green Party Deputy Leader, Catherine Martin TD, said Minister Heather Humphreys is 'at risk of being remembered as the most anti-environment Heritage Minister in the history of the State' if she doesn't change her approach.

In a response to a Parliamentary Question tabled by Deputy Martin regarding the upcoming National Biodiversity Action Plan 2017-2021, Minister Humphreys has claimed her Department is so underfunded that it cannot carry out its core responsibilities.

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Deputy Martin said: "This Minister is unwilling to include the completion of the designation process for Natural Heritage Areas in the third National Biodiversity Action Plan. Proposed NHAs were identified over 20 years ago and the designation process has still not been completed.

"The previous Action Plan contained an objective to complete the designation process. That has now been omitted. In addition the previous plan contained an objective, informed by best scientific practice to strengthen the coherence, connectivity and resilience (including resilience to climate change) of the protected areas network. That objective has also been omitted.

"Many of the stakeholders operating in this sphere, regretfully, have arrived at the opinion that many of the Minister's initiatives are anti-environment. She doesn't appreciate the grave and genuine concerns expressed by the beekeepers and others who felt compelled to protest outside Leinster House last Thursday.

"They are doing their utmost to protect their local environment but it is demoralising for them when a government is insistent on travelling down a different, destructive policy road."

(CD/JP)