Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
National Parks and Wildlife Service Strategic Review: Discussion
3:00 pm
Mr. Niall Ó Donnchú:
If I may come in on that, there are measures. The first measure regarding any designated site concerns interface with the planning system. The second concerns what are called ARCs, which colleagues present absolutely understand. You cannot do any work on a designated site without the consent of the Minister, and that is a protection that goes across the entire set of SACs and SPAs. In some cases, you need the hand-to-nature intervention we engage in – for instance, in relation to the curlew. I acknowledge the co-operation of all the NGOs referred to today in relation to grouse and so on. You need hand-to-nature intervention whereby volunteers and others are on the ground protecting particularly vulnerable species, whether flora or fauna. Dr. Bleasdale will refer to some of the details.