Mr. Alex Copland:

I worked on the corncrake study for three years when I first came to Ireland. The measure in the Shannon Callows has failed. The reason it has failed is because Ireland has flooded ten times in the last 12 years. This summer the callows were under a couple of metres of water. Not just the corncrakes but everything has done badly there simply because of the summer flooding. The farmers there are actually doing more than necessary to try to preserve the corncrakes. It is a really unfortunate circumstance that the corncrake population has gone from the Shannon Callows. There are also corncrake programmes in Donegal and Mayo and Connemara. In the west, principally in Mayo and Connemara, there were 14 corncrakes when I came to Ireland and now there are more than 60. The scheme in the west has done very well. In Donegal the population has maintained at around 100 for many years. The corncrake scheme in Donegal is holding on to the numbers while the scheme in the west has done a lot of work to benefit the corncrake population. We also have a very good baseline knowledge about many of the species which need to be conserved. We know why they are declining. In the UK and throughout Europe many measures have been put in place to help such bird populations. Targeted measures are the most successful.