Dr. Anita Donaghy:

On my behalf and on behalf of Ms Duggan, I thank the committee for the opportunity to present.

People have always had a strong connection with wild birds in Ireland. Species like the curlew, lapwing and the now extinct bittern are mentioned in our songs, poems, prose and folklore. Birds adorn important texts like the Book of Kells. Whether in the garden, along the coast or in the countryside, the presence and songs of birds have given people great joy and respite during the Covid-19 pandemic. Wild birds are also indicators of the health of the environment, and many of our regularly occurring species are monitored to detect changes in populations and in the world around us.

In April 2021, BirdWatch Ireland and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in Northern Ireland jointly published Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland 2020-2026, our fourth assessment since 1999 of what is commonly known as the BoCCI list. This is a quantitative assessment based on the most up-to-date information that is available from a range of studies. Using a traffic light system, BoCCI indicates the conservation status of bird species on the island of Ireland by placing them on three lists - red, amber or green - indicating whether the species is of high, medium or low conservation concern.

The key message is that more birds than ever are now red-listed in Ireland, which is the highest status of concern for their population. A total of 54 Irish bird species, or 26%, are now on the red list. An additional 79 species, or 37%, are now on the amber list and 78 species are on the green list, meaning they are not currently at risk. This means that 63% of Ireland’s bird species are now in trouble, either in Ireland or in other parts of their range, and about a quarter of all our birds are suffering a decline here in Ireland. Not only are some declining species becoming more threatened but even recently common species are declining too.

The main groups of birds of concern are those of wetlands, farmland and our marine environment. Ireland is an important wintering area for migratory water birds that breed at Arctic latitudes and migrate southwards using our estuaries, coastal bays, rivers and lakes as staging posts or wintering areas. We used to host well over 1 million water birds during winter but this number has decreased by a shocking 40% since the mid-1990s.

Since Ireland has been farmed for millennia, many bird species have found a niche in Irish farmland, where they breed, over-winter and stop off on migration. In 1999, 11 farmland birds of meadows, arable, pasture and upland habitats were on the red list. Today, one of these birds, the corn bunting, which is an arable specialist, has become extinct and a further eight new species have been added from across all farmed habitats, indicating a continued marked decline in the quantity and quality of these important areas for biodiversity in the past 20 years. Shockingly, the kestrel and snipe were until recently widespread on farmland and are now on the red list. The kestrel has suffered a 28% decline in its breeding population between 2006 and 2016 and the snipe has declined by over 50% in the past 25 years. Ireland will possibly be the first European country to lose the iconic curlew as a breeding species.

With regard to seabirds, three species were added to the most recent red list, the kittiwake, razorbill and much-loved puffin. Since the departure of the UK from the EU, Ireland is the most important member state for four of the red-listed seabirds.

Ireland is losing its diversity and abundance of bird species. We are at a tipping point and we are deeply concerned about what the next BoCCI will look like if concerted action is not taken now to safeguard our wild birds.