Mr. Niall ? Donnch?:

That was not the intention of the comment at all. In the context of nature, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has no intention of being in the pack. We want to be ahead of the pack. The comment was made by way of international comparator. The statistics we gave, and we will not sugar-coat this, indicate the State has not covered itself in glory in its response to nature. There is no other way to put that. We simply have not. Many factors have contributed to that, not least resource prioritisation. We are now in a situation where resources for the NPWS are being prioritised and are growing and we are trying to address the shortcomings of the past, if I can put it that diplomatically.

We are currently in the middle of an Article 17 process to look again at habitats to see what state they are in. We anticipate that there will be some improvement. I cannot quite put a number on that because the next report is not due until 2025, but we have made very significant interventions across the habitat network in the context of dealing with threatened species, the kind of resources we can put into play, and owning up to the shortcomings of the past. We are looking forward to the 2025 report. I hope we will be back here reporting improvements, certainly network improvements, in some of our habitats. The intention was certainly not to say that being less than middling is good enough. We need to be ahead of the pack.