Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply but I note the NPWS has been given significant extra funding. It is essential some of that is put towards a bounty on mink. We cannot let this predator continue to roam uncontrolled in rural areas and in the water. If it does, many species will become extinct. The Minister of State stated the NPWS “does not have the resources at its disposal to undertake such work on a wider scale”. I accept that but with a bounty, through the conservation clubs and fishing and angling clubs the workforce will be there to do this. They know the terrain and how to trap mink. They would be well able to do it and would do it efficiently. It would help our biodiversity challenges and is essential. These people are passionate about protecting habitats for wildlife, as well as waterway habitats. They are exasperated about the damage the mink is doing. When you sit down and talk to them, you see their passion to protect species like young pheasants, young hares and water hens. Their passion is unbelievable. No one can deny the mink is a predator. It should not be in our countryside. They were let go wild by commercial enterprises when there was no longer a profit to be made. They have to be controlled and, to put it mildly, exterminated.

I urge the Minister of State to do a census on the cormorant as quickly as possible. The damage they are doing to our fish stocks is immense. The people who know the waterways and lake shores say no fish will survive if cormorant numbers continue to grow at the current rate.

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