Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 116: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he intends to establish a mink trapping programme to counteract the problems posed by predatory mink on bird species; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36665/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The national parks and wildlife service of my Department regularly carries out trapping of mink to protect particular bird colonies. As mink is not a protected species under the Wildlife Acts 1976 and 2000, they can also be trapped freely by landowners and their agents.

A major scientific study carried out over three years 1983 to 1986 into the biology of the feral mink and its impact and control issues in Ireland concluded that mink populations naturally stabilise. While recommending trapping in specific locations where they are causing a problem, for example, to game birds or to island and colony nesting birds, the study concluded that it is difficult to substantially reduce mink populations over larger areas. It advised that attempting to do so could even exacerbate the problem by creating a vacuum to be filled by young colonisers, which would be liable to cause more problems than a well-established, stabilised population. In most situations the scientific advice is that it is best to leave mink to stabilise naturally.