Ms Ciara Carberry:

The hen harrier is under threat in Ireland due to a number of complex factors, including, primarily, the loss of suitable habitat through afforestation, forest maturation, agricultural reclamation and intensification, land abandonment and the development of wind energy in upland areas. Some of these land use changes may also cause unsustainable rates of nest loss due to increased levels of associated predation. In addition, there is a very low survival rate of juvenile births through their first winter, which is not balanced by the number of young being produced each summer.

In order to identify the actions required to address these threats and prepare a threat response plan, the Department has had to undertake comprehensive reviews of available evidence and scientific information and to gather, compile and analyse information on the precise nature, extent and distribution of the threats. It has also supported new research, for example, on the ecology of the wintering hen harrier, and engaged with stakeholders across the relevant sectors to inform the plan. Data and findings from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's hen harrier European innovation partnership have also been very useful in this regard.

While this process is taking a number of years, and certainly longer than we had hoped, it is moving forward. Recently, the Department brought a draft of the threat response plan to the consultative committee to seek its views with the intention of then proceeding to public consultation, which we hope will happen in the coming months. The consultative committee raised a number of matters that we are working to address, including the finalisation of site-specific conservation objectives for the six breeding hen harrier special protection areas. Once the discussions with the consultative committee and the interdepartmental steering group conclude, the plan will then move to public consultation, which we hope will be shortly, as well as a strategic environmental assessment and an appropriate assessment of the plan, if required.