Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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599. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the statistics in each of the years 2000 to 2016, inclusive, and to date in 2017 on gull numbers by urban and rural areas. [46613/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department funds various bird monitoring projects which provide some data on gull numbers, but not detailed information on urban versus rural populations. Indeed, in a bird of flight and range such distinction is anomalous.

The main source of bird monitoring data for the over wintering period is the Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS), co-ordinated by BirdWatch Ireland.  Data is compiled annually and is available via the IWeBS online portal (). As many gulls feed inland, they may not be recorded in urban or coastal wetlands.

Detailed species specific reports, including for several species of gull, are produced from time to time, and the last major report covered the period 2001/02 – 2008/09. This report is also available online (). The next major report is scheduled to be produced in 2018.

A synthesis report on breeding seabirds (including gulls) based on surveys undertaken during the period 2015 – 2018 will be published when analysis is complete; however the surveys are targeted mainly at cliff and island colonies.