Written answers

Wednesday, 6 November 2019

Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

Wildlife Data

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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231. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the degree to which the number of species of migratory small birds has diminished in recent years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45784/19]

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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232. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the degree to which the number of various species of native birds or animals has diminished in recent years; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45785/19]

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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233. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the extent to which her Department monitors the number and species of migratory birds spending winters or summers here; the degree to which the species have altered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45786/19]

Photo of Josepha MadiganJosepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 231 to 233, inclusive, together.

My Department is responsible for the implementation of the Wildlife Acts and the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011, both of which underpin the legislative and policy framework for the protection and conservation of our natural heritage. In particular, the 2011 Regulations transpose two key pieces of EU nature legislation: the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive.

The main aim of the Habitats Directive is to contribute towards the conservation of biodiversity by requiring Member States to take measures to maintain or restore natural habitats and wild species listed on the Annexes to the Directive at a favourable conservation status. These annexes list habitats (Annex I) and species (Annexes II, IV and V) which are considered threatened in the EU territory. The listed habitats and species represent a considerable proportion of biodiversity in Ireland and the Directive itself is one of the most important pieces of legislation governing the conservation of biodiversity in Europe.

Under Article 11 of the Directive, Ireland is obliged to undertake surveillance of the conservation status of the natural habitats and species in the Annexes and, under Article 17, to report to the European Commission every six years on their status and on the implementation of the measures taken under the Directive.

In April 2019, Ireland submitted the third assessment of conservation status for 59 habitats and 60 species (including three overview assessments of species at a group level). A further 8 species are considered to be vagrant in Ireland.

The Article 17 report for 2019 is published in 3 volumes: An overview report (Volume 1), released in August 2019, provides more detail on the methodologies, an easy-to-read summary of the results and a list of contributors to the assessments. Volume 2 (Habitats) and Volume 3 (Species) contain the detailed reports and relevant scientific information. The report is available on the NPWS website (

While many habitats are still considered to be in unfavourable status, the picture for plant and animal species is substantially better, with over 70% reported as stable or increasing.

Article 12.1 of the Birds Directive states that “Member States shall forward to the Commission every three years, starting from 7 April 1981, a report on the implementation of national provisions taken under this Directive.” In 2008 a new system of bird reporting was developed similar to the reporting format under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. This also included a transition from a three-year to six-year reporting cycle, synchronised with the reporting under Article 17 of the Habitats Directive. The first report under the revised format covered the period 2008 – 2012 and reported out on Ireland’s regularly occurring breeding species as well as those wintering and passage species that trigger SPA classification.

As part of this reporting obligation Ireland submitted, on schedule, 209 season specific assessments, including assessments for all of Ireland’s regularly occurring breeding species and a large proportion of those species’ populations that occur here during the non-breeding period, to the European Topic Centre on October 31st2019. Additionally a general report was also transmitted. The 209 ‘species-seasons’ figure can be broken down into:

- 142 assessments of breeding birds (including a short report on one species, Corn Bunting, that went extinct after the Birds Directive came into force);

- 63 wintering accounts with the vast majority related to wintering waterbird populations; and

- four accounts of birds using Ireland’s coastlines or her offshore waters on passage (i.e. three tern species and one shearwater).

Approximately 30% of the breeding species assessed are estimated to have remained stable or increased in abundance over the long-term. This cohort includes those relatively recent colonists with strong population growth including Little Egret, Great Skua, Mediterranean Gull, Little Ringed Plover, Bearded Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker as well as our re-introduced raptor species of Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle and Red Kite (along with other raptor species Buzzard and Peregrine). These recent additions to Ireland’s breeding bird community need to be viewed in the context that almost 20% of Ireland’s breeding bird species, and where available data allows, are considered to be in long term decline.

The majority of Ireland’s breeding seabird species’ long term population trends are now reckoned to be either stable or increasing and this follows through to quite consistent population increases within the breeding seabird group (where the available data allows) over the short-term period as well. Gannet continues to increase in abundance and breeding range with a relatively new colony established on Lambay Island off the east coast. In relation to the recorded short term population increases and with regard to the many short term breeding distribution increases it is possible that the increased level of breeding seabird survey effort over the last four years or so may be partially responsible for some of these recorded gains.

Of particular note are the very strong population increases with several of our breeding tern species (e.g. Roseate Tern, Sandwich Tern, Little Tern and Common Tern). At the site level it is evident that targeted conservation measures in the form of wardened tern colonies is resulting in direct and effective conservation positives. However several of these particular species’ estimated long-term breeding range trends are in decline or stagnant which not only reinforces the need for such conservation management interventions but also clearly sets out the on-going obligation that such conservation initiatives are maintained or where necessary (especially with regard to the management of predators) improved.

Robust and contemporary population estimates have been produced for approximately 85% of our breeding seabird species. Work is on-going in my Department with surveys of burrow nesting seabirds (e.g. Puffin, Manx Shearwater, Storm Petrel and Leach’s Storm Petrel) located on offshore marine islands.

Due to a lack of available data we have not provided contemporary population estimates for several species, some of which trigger SPA classifications (e.g. Chough, Kingfisher) and others that we have reported in the previous Article 12 round as having undergone significant long-term declines (e.g. Red Grouse, Woodcock with both of these species on Ireland’s Open Seasons Order). Plans to increase the monitoring effort for these species are to be prioritised over the coming years.

Some of our breeding farmland songbirds have been flagged in recent decades as being particularly vulnerable to the modernisation and intensification of agricultural practices. This ongoing change in agricultural practices has led to the extinction of Corn Bunting as a breeding bird in Ireland and has caused significant long term declines to species such as Yellowhammer, Whinchat and Twite for example. The latter two species’ estimated populations are now considered to be both less than 100 pairs.

Countryside Bird Survey data for two ground nesting songbird species which are still relatively abundant and widespread, namely Meadow Pipit and Skylark were used for this reporting round. Their preferred breeding habitats include peatlands and unimproved grasslands, and both populations are in decline with the estimated short term abundance of Meadow Pipit declining by over 12% and for Skylark by almost 11%. Over the last 40 years or so the estimated breeding range of the latter has decreased by almost one quarter. Such estimated declines are of particular concern as both Meadow Pipit and Skylark make up significant proportions of the prey base of some of Ireland’s raptors of conservation concern including Merlin, Kestrel and Hen Harrier. The estimated short term declines for the latter two raptors are estimated to be circa 28% and 10% respectively.

Breeding waders as a group continue to suffer significant declines in both population and breeding range, in both the short- and long-term. Species such as Curlew, Lapwing, Redshank and Dunlin have declined by 93% or more in the long term. Certain breeding duck populations are also of concern with numbers of breeding Common Scoter continuing to decline to critically low levels. While this species’ range is stable, the population has declined 21-54% in the short-term and 61% in the long-term. The latest assessment of breeding Red-breasted Merganser (which was reproduced from the 2008-2012 reporting period due to a lack of contemporary data) estimates that this breeding population has declined 62% in the short-term.

The vast majority of those wintering populations assessed as part of the Article 12 Reporting process relate to wintering waterbirds. This group includes ducks, geese, swans and waders among others. Due to its geographical location, climate and wetland habitats, Ireland is an important host for hundreds of thousands of visiting waterbirds during the non-breeding/wintering seasons. Due to the relative sizes of their respective biogeographic populations, Ireland is of international importance for several waterbird species including Whooper Swan, Greenland White-fronted Goose, Brent Goose, and Black-tailed Godwit among others. The Article 12 reporting process does not seek information on the wintering range of these species.

Other birds that are not water-birds visit Ireland during the winter but good data to describe them precisely is not currently available.

More detailed data, with regard to the numbers of winter migrant water-birds, is available in the recent Irish Wildlife Manual number 106 published by my Department's NPWS: .

Information concerning Ireland's Article 12 report can be found at the NPWS website:

In addition, NPWS and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency are working together with national experts and with the National Biological Data Centres North and South to produce regional Red Lists for the island of Ireland. The production of Red Lists is an action under our National Biodiversity Plans. Red Lists are published on an irregular basis, as datasets and the necessary national expertise for taxonomic groups become available.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) developed the standard Red List approach for dealing with the presentation of information on rare and threatened species. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria were developed in the early nineties to further objectively assess and prioritise species for conservation purposes at a global scale.

Ireland's Red Lists are available on the NPWS website:

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