Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuireann sé áthas orm go bhfuil deis ann cúpla focal a rá i dtaobh an ábhair seo. I am among the lucky ones as I have a national park in my area. There is no doubt that Connemara National Park has made a significant contribution to Connemara since it was purchased in the late 1970s. It is simplistic, however, to think that we need national parks all over the place. Obviously, Irish land history is very different from most European land history. As a result of the land wars of the 19th century and early 20th century, most of the land went back to smaller farmers rather than going to big ranch-type farmers or, for example, what happened in Scotland with the clearances. That always has to be taken into account.

There has been another and much cheaper way for the State to protect biodiversity, however, one for which it may not have paid enough, and that is by designation. We should stand back for a minute and consider what designation means. It means that the State comes in and, although it recognises that the land belongs to the landowner, it gives a big list of activities that cannot be carried out there without its permission. Obviously, that has significant implications on other things such as physical planning permissions and so on. In that way, the State controls the activities on a vast amount of land that far exceeds the size of the national parks. In the case of Connemara west of the Corrib, for example, the reality is that 80% of that area is designated as either a special area of conservation, a special protection area or a natural heritage area. The areas that are not designated are the green bits that people have been farming more intensively than ever. None of it is wild. All of it was farmed; every bit of it.

It is interesting to pay attention to the pattern of where people live. It always strikes me when I see houses in odd or isolated locations that the pressure to survive was so great that every bit of green land was inhabited. There were people living on the butts of mountains and so on. There is history involved in all of this. Comparing that with the settlement pattern in other places, if one tries to impose their way of doing it, that will immediately create friction.

I hear about crime, including environmental crime. It is happening. There are people across society who carry out environmental crime. My experience, however, is that the vast majority of people, particularly landholders, care for the land and biodiversity. I often sat down with older farmers through the years and discussed their natural and indigenous methods of farming, many of which were supplanted by previous Government schemes involving land reclamation, mechanisation and so on. The diversity they had on small farms was incredible.

I refer to their knowledge when it comes to protecting wildlife. I remember being on a deserted island where there was a project going on to bring back the corncrake. The woman who owned the house grew up on the island with her father. She explained to me that when they were mowing the field, her father would never have gone near a corncrake nest and that, at the time, there were about 100 pairs of corncrakes on that very small island off Clifden. Thankfully, some of them have come back. Strangely, one of the things they needed was interaction with humans. If the place is allowed to go wild, as had happened on that island for the previous 30 years, that actually causes the demise of the corncrake. In some cases, a carefully managed countryside is what is needed, rather than the dream that some people have of letting it all go wild.

In the context of society in general, surely on this island we have learned that policing only works when it is with the consent and support of those being policed. If one has to watch out for everybody in one's community, there will never be enough rangers, conservation officers or ordinary members of An Garda Síochána. What makes it work in most of society, including the area in which I work, which is very lightly policed, is that the vast majority of the people there want the law to be kept, keep the law themselves and do not want law-breakers in their midst. Similarly, I have found a lot of the people who have worked for the NPWS to be absolutely superb because they live and work in the communities, understand the people and work with them. In that way, everybody goes forward together. The reality, however, is that if one tries to come in with a heavy hand, one will not get half as much conservation as one will by working with people, particularly landholders, who have a significant stored knowledge of what is there.

There are challenges. On the other hand, if I leave my house and walk up what we call the seanbóthar - it is a walking route we built that goes on for four or five miles - I can see we still have a fair bit of biodiversity. There is great nature. Who are the ones who appreciate it most? The local people. I will hand over to my colleague, Deputy Devlin.

See this speech in context