Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Over the weekend, we saw a programme by the legendary broadcaster, David Attenborough, showcasing Killarney National Park. While there has been some progress on the contracts for the general operatives who work there and who, throughout the Covid pandemic, drove vehicles, tended to the herds, built fences, walkways, bridges and benches and even undertook a fire safety course, all of the praise we heard masks significant problems. We need an upland management scheme. We need a plan to deal with the deer and wild goats, from which practically every sapling in the national park is under threat, and we need a proper 15-year plan to finally eliminate rhododendron. If we are serious about it, we need to increase the number of staff. In 1983, there were 70 staff. There are now 12. Will the Government take steps to maintain what Attenborough described as astonishing scenery, animal dramas and wildlife spectaculars to match anything he had ever seen?

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