Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 370: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the financial assistance that is awarded annually to BirdWatch Ireland; if it is compensated for work it does in respect of landscape designations or reports used in respect of these designations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34847/10]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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My Department has provided funding to BirdWatch Ireland to employ a Species Policy Officer since November 2008, as part of a three year project to advise Government Departments, agencies and other stakeholders on measures that need to be considered to address many bird conservation issues highlighted by a December 2007 European Court of Justice judgment . In 2009, approximately €56,800 was provided for this purpose.

Funding has also been provided to BirdWatch to support their core activity through the core and capacity building fund provided annually by my Department to the Irish Environmental Network (IEN). The IEN is an umbrella representative group for a number of environmental Non-governmental Organisations (eNGOs). In 2009 an amount of €11,586 was provided in respect of this funding to Birdwatch Ireland.

My Department also grant-aids certain conservation projects. These range from coordinating the Irish input to an atlas of breeding birds in Ireland and Great Britain, to conservation projects for rare or threatened species, such as projects on the corncrake, barn owl, and two tern species. BirdWatch Ireland organised the work programmes for these projects and brought considerable levels of volunteer assistance to improve the outputs. Work on public awareness was also supported. The total grant aid in 2009 was approximately €279,000.

My Department outsources a certain amount of essential scientific work, including the gathering of data, which is used by my Department to assist in informing the approach to designating conservation areas. BirdWatch Ireland has tendered successfully for a range of contracts. The Irish Wetland Birds Survey, which is operated through such a contract, carried out a large number of counts of birds in wetlands throughout Ireland during the winter months. Much of the counting is done by BirdWatch volunteers. The large volume of data is collected, authenticated, analysed and reported on by scientific staff of BirdWatch Ireland. A contract fee of some €107,000 was paid for this work in 2009.

In 2009, my Department outsourced work, to assist the preparation of conservation objectives for sites designated as Special Protection Areas under the EU Birds Directive, through a tender process. BirdWatch Ireland won the contract and were paid approximately €124,000 for the work in 2009.