Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for the opportunity to discuss this important issue in the House. Killarney National Park is managed by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government through its National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS. The national park is internationally renowned for its beauty and its richness in wildlife. It is protected under European Union directives and has UNESCO biosphere reserve designation. The park attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, some of whom are in the Visitors Gallery, and can be truly classed as one of Ireland's crown jewels. All of this demands that the National Parks and Wildlife Service manages the site to the highest standards. The Department devotes considerable time, energy and resources to achieving these standards.

One of the enduring features associated with the area are the jaunting cars which provide popular horse-drawn tours throughout Killarney town and its environs. In the national park up to 45 jarveys operating 66 jaunting cars ply their trade under licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service across a network of some 15 km of internal roads. An unfortunate consequence of so many horses frequenting the park is that the roadways are consistently fouled with horse dung. The presence of this untreated dung in the park has long been a concern from the point of view of aesthetic, environmental, tourism and health and safety grounds. While the jarveys can add to the visitor experience, the soiling of roads in the park is no longer acceptable. Moreover, it should be noted that the roads are maintained and cleaned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service at taxpayers' expense.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has been engaged in a lengthy consultation process with the jarveys since the end of 2007 to consider how best to deal with the issue. As part of this process, it carried out trials with a mechanical sweeper and dung catchers. The dung catcher option, preferred notably on cost, effectiveness and noise grounds, was also the subject of tests by a leading United Kingdom based equine expert as well as a leading veterinary consultant. The outcome, including as a result of practice trials and consultations with experts, is that dung catchers work effectively, work in various terrains, are easy to operate and do not compromise animal health or welfare. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has continued to meet the jarveys and sought to allay any concerns regarding usage and animal welfare through demonstration of the device. It has also offered to provide the dung catchers free of charge.

The Minister is confident that the dung catcher device is the way forward. These devices are already in widespread use in many European cities. After more than a year of consultations, the National Parks and Wildlife Service had hoped to have them in use in the national park for the start of the main 2009 season. It is not unreasonable that the service should proceed with the date selected for their introduction, namely, 8 June. From this date, jarvey licences will have a new condition added which requires that equine sanitary devices be used.

While the dung catcher requirement is to apply to the national park only, the Minister is hopeful that Killarney Town Council will follow this example and introduce similar controls for the town where the soiling of streets is also a problem. He asks all jarveys to support the new arrangement which will raise the high standards of Killarney National Park even further. This objective can be achieved at negligible cost and disruption to the jarveys themselves.

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