Mr. Sean Doris:

Deputy Ferris asked whether there is a bounty for mink and how is the scheme panning out. We obtained money through the NPWS and the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs. The scheme is 12 months old and we have submitted figure returns to the Minister, Deputy Deenihan. We have a budget to make a bounty payment for the invasive species known as mink. Our gun clubs at grassroots level have targeted mink for over 30 years which is when they first became a visible presence on the landscape. Thankfully, after years of trying, we have a bounty scheme that works well and we have the figures to prove it. The association welcomes the scheme.

The incentive may be small but it is still an incentive and Deputy Ferris touched on incentives. He wondered how does one progress anything without incentives. Progress can be made using incentives but they are not the be-all and end-all. Good co-operation already exists between the farming community and the NARGC's gun club structure because it reaches parish level. There is a gun club in virtually every parish in the Republic and they work. The ethos of any gun club is that it must work with the farmer. If a gun club did not work with a farmer it would be left without a place to hunt, shoot or conserve. Gun clubs are conservationists first because if we do not look after the habitats we will not have any quarry species to hunt. In addition, the pest control of all of the invasive species must be controlled, and is controlled, at gun club level. All of that involves the co-operation of farmers. Before one puts a magpie cage or conducts a day's hunting on someone's land one must first have the permission of the landowner. The scheme works well but there has been a breakdown in communication at national level. The NARGC, as a national organisation, would welcome the opportunity to sit down with national organisations like the IFA, etc. On the ground people in the NARGC and the IFA work together. If that co-operation is not shared the whole way upwards then there is a break in the chain and my organisation would welcome an improvement. If we wish to push the scheme forward then we must work together.