Mr. Ian Lumley:

It has not been cited as one of the major issues affecting nature conservation. There are facts and figures and statistics that are easily available which show thousands of single houses are being built, and have been built, in County Kerry over the past decade.

With regard to the cutting season, the restriction on the cutting of hedgerows is for the nesting season. Good hedgerow management allows for the cutting of hedgerows in advance of the nesting season and after. There has been considerable controversy over the Heritage Bill which is before the Oireachtas. The views of the environmental NGOs are well known and are that the existing hedge cutting season should be maintained.

On the turf cutting issue, I am the NGO representative on the Peatlands Council and the situation has been resolved. The remaining 1% of raised bogs are protected under European law. We failed in the late-1990s to introduce the protecting measures that were needed and a lot of time was lost. An effective mechanism has been put in place in compensation, relocation and resource conservation plan is in place.

With regard to hen harriers, we have been advocates of an areas based approach to sensitive habitats like the hen harrier areas that should benefit from a higher level of farm support and other grants as part of a fundamental reform of the CAP system. Those hen harrier areas can be integrated with high nature value farming areas. I am not clear about the issue raised on foxes because foxes are not one of the species under the current habitats reporting system. Badgers are a very controversial issue. We raised in our submission a very interesting pilot scheme that has been initiated in County Down in Northern Ireland for badger inoculation. Badgers are as much sufferers of TB as cattle. The cross-infection issue is very controversial and is the subject of ongoing research.

Mink is an invasive species and is extremely damaging to other native species. Part of the reason seagulls are coming into urban areas and being more present among us is they have lost their historic and traditional feeding sources or those feeding sources have diminished. These include the herring, mackerel and pilchard shoals that were once prevalent around our shores and have now been lost through overfishing.