Mr. Aaron Byrne:

The counters are quite interesting. County Wicklow Partnership has seven counters, which are as strategically located as best we thought we could, particularly for access to the uplands. They have been providing data to inform us which ORIS applications to make, such as for an upland path restoration project or whatever. The NPWS also has counters. It has 12 or 14 but they are primarily around Glendalough. Coillte has some counters, especially in the Dublin mountains. The issue with the counters is that we need to grab all of the information together to get a fuller picture of the county to see where people are going. If we count them going in one way, where do they come out? This is especially the case in the mountains. Counters are an expensive way to count people but they are quite reliable. The interpretation of this information is even more important. If it is interpreted wrongly it could lead to bad decisions. This is something we are looking at. Fáilte Ireland has been helping with this. We recently met some people involved in the visitor management plan for Glendalough, which Fáilte Ireland is undertaking with the local authority. It has some statisticians who are able to interpret the information. We have tentatively approached them to see whether they can help us to interpret the county's data. Another issue is that each agency gets its own data. In the past year we have started getting better at sharing the information among us all.