When launching a new plan or programme, it is par for the course for ministers to put their name to a foreword in the opening pages and partake in the obligatory launch event, posing for generic photos and briefly answering reporters hungry for a soundbite. This is normally more than enough for most in the ministerial hot seat. Not so for the Minister of State for Nature Malcolm Noonan. He did all of the above for the launch of the State’s fourth National Biodiversity Action Plan at the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin at the end of January. But he also…