Mr. Niall ? Donnch?:

Yes. The priority with national parks is nature. The national parks are hugely popular so there is a significant visitor component. We host over 6 million visitors per annum. When one is in the business of presentation and persuasion, the persuasion piece is that people see nature in action and see these beautiful areas. They are also hugely valuable as a economic driver locally so we cannot be blind to that.

In the context of farming, we would have statistics around whether the national parks are farmed or not. There is an element of farming for native species, in Connemara and in Killarney. There is an element of grazing rights, for instance, in parts of Wicklow and Dublin mountains national park. That grazing is managed very carefully in the context of protecting nature.

There are management plans that we operate to. They are not published formally in the context of what a management plan means in the Natura directives, but let me give Deputy Whitmore two examples. We are often criticised for not addressing the rhododendron problem, for instance, in Killarney. That criticism is absolutely misplaced. Our teams in Killarney have cleared over 2,000 ha of rhododendron this year alone. That is another restive space. One can never stop because the bloody thing tends to grow back. Like many invasive species, it is resilient. That is a constant job. In Donegal, in Glenveagh National Park, we have cleared entire mountainsides. When my teams sit down annually to prepare their capital investment and current investment plans for the year, protecting nature, working to enhance that nature, working to document that nature and ensuring that we are adhering to the Natura directives is top of their list but they have got to align that with the management of the visitors.