Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I suppose the question is whether there is space to have an overlap of 6 million visitors a year and protect nature. I am of the belief that there needs to be areas that are no-go areas where nature is allowed be. That is where Europe and the nature restoration was going as well. They were talking about highly protected areas. That language might have fallen out of the legislation. Is that where Mr. Ó Donnchú wants to go with our national parks to have some space in there that is only for nature? Even in the Wicklow national park, there was a review and a big public consultation on the national park but it was a car-parking plan. That, ultimately, was what it was. It was about how we can get tourists in. I accept tourism is a huge component of it but there should be space in our national parks for nature and biodiversity. If the National Parks and Wildlife Service was to do a review of monitoring national parks, how much more biodiverse are they than their neighbouring countryside? Can Mr. Ó Donnchú point to a national park where biodiversity objectives and ecological objectives have been met and where he could say that if one walks into that national park, one will see A, B and C, and that it is such a biodiverse area? I do not know whether there are any national parks which one can say that of.

I understand that the National Parks and Wildlife Service has been under-resourced. It is great that there is more of a focus from Government on this and it is really important, but there needs to be core areas in our countryside that are absolutely protected and there needs to be corridors between all those core areas so that we can have this ecological communication between the areas. That is where we need to be going and I would like to think that is also the National Parks and Wildlife Service's objective. Six million visitors is a lot. It is great that people are out in nature but we need to have protections for nature that too.