Mr. Pádraic Fogarty:

I will come in there if the Chairman does not mind. I thank the Senator. I totally echo what Dr. Lysaght said. As regards the impact this has had, one must remember that these fires are widespread and occur every year. In the ten or more years I have been working in this area, we have been dealing with these fires every year. There is also the issue of erosion caused by too many farm animals being on the hills. There are conifer plantations that were planted in the 1950s and 1960s and are still there. Basically, from a policy point of view, the uplands have been completely abandoned.

From an ecological point of view, these ecosystems are in collapse. Many of the birds that lived on and were synonymous with the uplands are literally hanging on by their toenails, if they still exist. Some bird species are literally down to one or two populations whereas 30 or 40 years ago they were everywhere. The uplands as a whole have been ignored and neglected. The flip side is that although we should value the uplands for their heritage and nature, they are also of benefit in terms of carbon storage and much of our water comes from them, so they do all these things for us. However, as Dr. Lysaght said, they have not been invested in but, rather, pretty much ignored. I firmly believe the opportunity is still there but we need a radical rethink about what we want from these landscapes. If we can agree on that, we could really get something special in the decade to come.