Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion
3:00 pm
Mr. Niall Ó Donnchú:
Sorry. I misunderstood. We are delighted with that engagement, and it certainly enhances what we do. Anti-science is dangerous, full stop. I will not say any more than that. Scepticism and anti-science just do not serve anybody well. They certainly do not serve society well. I will leave that comment there. Co-operation across the State system is excellent. We have really good relations with the Office of Public Works and hugely positive relations with the local authorities, Inland Fisheries, the Garda, etc. Where we go looking for co-operation, we absolutely get it, and equally with NGOs. The engagement with NGOs is frank but constructive. People are coming from a good place. We understand that and we respect the place people are coming from. None of us respect the anti-science. That is just dangerous.
On my reference to farmers being incentivised and so on, that is a nature restoration law question, so I will ask my colleague Ms Áinle Ní Bhriain to come in on that point. Then, on the engagement piece and the stakeholders, my colleague Mr. Malachy Corcoran will come in, Chair, if that is okay. If I have forgotten anything Senator Moynihan said, I will come back to it.
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