Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 July 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Preserving Ireland's Natural Heritage: Discussion

2:15 pm

Mr. Michael Starrett:

Yes. The French example for its parcs régionalesis based on the development of a local charter with local communities. The designation is based on and follows through on that. There are specific examples. There was a policy proposal from the Heritage Council, which I will ensure the committee gets, on that type of legislation just prior to the recession. It may be time to bring it to the fore again.

On forestry policy, the Heritage Council has produced clear statements on forestry. We work primarily through an organisation known as Woodlands of Ireland which is jointly funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Heritage Council and the Forestry Service. I think it has had a great influence on the management of our commercial woodlands. By any rational judgment, Coillte has changed its approach within the last few years. It is still driven by the economic imperative but, in terms of recreation and its embracing of a more fixed type of forestry, great progress has been made.

On river parks in urban areas, our national headquarters is in Kilkenny. It is only now that even Kilkenny city and county council has turned and realised the value of the river. It has been developing it at a local level.

To broaden it out to look at the work of, say, the water corridor studies that the Heritage Council did with Waterways Ireland some years ago, where we were looking at a much more integrated approach plan, the river catchment management plans offer tremendous opportunity for that type of approach in Ireland. Despite some of the facts and figures, I remain tremendously optimistic that the issues and the difficulties can be overcome as long as we make sure that people and communities are central to the discussions and the argument and that there is not too much imposition on them as we move to develop all these new initiatives.

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