Ms Cara Heraty:

I will deal with the first question on the National Parks and Wildlife Service. There was a difficult period in County Wicklow, as in the rest of the country, when the designations were first made. I am pleased to say that during the years the relationship with the National Parks and Wildlife Service has dramatically improved in County Wicklow. We co-operate with it on a number of projects, one of which involves the protection of rural and upland environments and collecting material illegally dumped, together with Coillte and the local authorities. We work with the service on some very successful projects.

To clarify, the area of special protection is a subset of the SAC. We are not talking about an additional 32,000 ha; it is a case of 32,000 ha of SAC, of which the SPA is a subset.

From attending various presentations by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and as a member of the national working group that has been exploring a scheme for the uplands of Ireland, it is clear that the National Parks and Wildlife Service is moving from desk-based to evidence-based management plans. The designation phase is now complete and according to the commitment to the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy, we must at least maintain and improve the condition of upland habitats. In some cases European Court of Justice fines have been imposed. That is why there is a response on issues such as the freshwater pearl mussel. We know that the National Parks and Wildlife Service's priorities include such issues as the restoration of raised bogs, restoring the freshwater pearl mussel to eight rivers and sustainable management of uplands. Another priority is grassland management in EU grassland habitats. From discussions with staff at national level, farmers are recognised as being key to the delivery of the plans, not just because they own some of the areas which are designated but also because the staff and resources are not exist available within the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The service recognises the value of farmers, sometimes through holding grazing rights, even within national parks, and that they have a key role to play in improving the condition of habitats. Currently, there is a huge gap in terms of the optimal stocking rates for production of biodiversity in the various types of habitat. That is why in our report we recommend the parallel study to identify this and carry out some research. We would love to work with Teagasc and the National Parks and Wildlife Service on the study in the future.