Feargal Quinn (Independent)

The Minister is very welcome and so is this Bill. It is a technical Bill that he has explained very well. I was delighted to hear him state his intention to publish a new wildlife Bill in 2014, under the national 2011-2016 biodiversity plan.

It was also a delight to listen to Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú talking about the past and the quality of life, although the quality of life of the poor bird that is going to be shot does not sound so good. There is little doubt that for those of us who are or have been city dwellers the benefit we get from country life and its diversity is just wonderful. I live in north county Dublin, in Fingal. It is very interesting to see the quantity of wildlife that exists on the Hill of Howth. On one occasion I met two Frenchmen at the airport who were coming here to shoot woodcock in County Clare. I took them home for lunch. They could not get over the number of birds around and asked why nobody was shooting them. This was in Baldoyle and areas around Portmarnock, as we came from the airport. I was reminded of being in southern Italy on one occasion when there seemed to be non-stop shooting. I am told Malta is even worse, that there is non-stop shooting of everything that moves in the sky. We do not have that in Ireland. As Senator Ó Murchú noted, we have a tradition of respecting and valuing wildlife.

In the part of the world where I live I am amazed at the number of wild pheasants and am particularly interested to see the Brent geese when they arrive every year. On one occasion in the Seanad, on 23 October, during a discussion on wildlife, I referred to the fact that this date was the date on which, each year, the Brent geese arrived, having come all the way from Canada. They certainly land in my part of the world on 23 October. I observed also that they leave on 23 April every year. Some years later I had a telephone call from RTE which was doing a wildlife programme on birds in north county Dublin, including the Brent geese. The programme makers had googled the name of anybody who was an expert, had discovered I had spoken on the matter in the Seanad and had assumed I was an expert. When I told a friend I was going to do an interview on Bull Island about Brent geese he asked me what I knew about them. I said I knew they come on 23 October and leave on 23 April and he replied that it would be the shortest interview RTE ever did about wildlife and Brent geese.

We have a great wealth of diversity here and have so much from which to benefit. Anything we can do to maintain this needs constant attention and the Bill is a reminder of the Minister's commitment to this end. The legislation passed in recent years concerning licensing and licences needs to be amended and it is good to see it amended on that basis. Let us ensure we allocate time and attention to the wildlife Bill when it is introduced in two years' time, so that we can protect the environment in the future. Where I live in Howth I am lucky there are quite a number of red squirrels around, in several families. We have them in our garden and around the area. It is an area that has been protected from the invasion of the grey squirrels which tend to take over from the red squirrels. We have so much quality of life from which to benefit. Let us ensure we take whatever steps we need to in order to continue to protect this area so that we and the next generation can get all the benefit of this wildlife in years to come.

I support the Bill, as I believe all of us do. We see no problem in having it passed in this House.