Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will feed back the Deputy's comments to the Minister and Department. I think 60 is a significant increase. Funding for the NPWS doubled in the budget. This is an area in which I am interested. I want to support the Minister and Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, in respect of the NPWS to give it stronger capacity in future in terms of our wildlife, national parks and biodiversity.

The Deputy has made a very good suggestion on utilising this terrible event perhaps to provide for a specific research-type project that would involve supervised research students and seek to understand the impact of fires on habitat, but also mechanisms that we can develop to restore the habitat as quickly as we possibly can. That is a good idea and I certainly will talk to the Minister and Minister of State to see if something can be developed on that score.

It is not for me to comment on operational issues around recruitment and so on but it is always the case that the knowledge of the experienced person can be of value to the new recruit.

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