Mr. Brian Caffrey:

I will start with the issue of reintroductions. As has been seen, it has been possible to reintroduce some species of birds of prey. Our partner in the UK, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, has also reintroduced species. It is certainly possible but these reintroductions are hugely expensive. We do not have the money to protect the species involved, which are suffering declines of 40%, 60% or 80%. Although it is possible as a very last measure, we are supportive of all efforts being made to protect the species we have in the first instance.

Research which came out of Germany approximately one year ago shows that the insect populations in nature reserves that had been monitored over a period of 20 years had declined by approximately 70%. The most recent data on various insects in Ireland, which was gathered by the National Biodiversity Data Centre, shows quite significant declines in population. We are seeing the same results here. That will have a serious impact throughout the food chain.

In some parts of the city and other parts of the country, gulls are moving into urban areas and are nesting. This is certainly an issue in some cases but we need to remember that the herring gull, which is one of the species about which we are talking, is on the red list. It is on the same list of species as the curlew and the corncrake. Their natural sites in coastal areas have been decimated over the past 20 or 30 years. We need to find out how these populations are changing and what the numbers are like. We need to do some proper scientific surveys and monitoring of these gull nesting sites in urban areas before we start talking about what comes next in terms of management.