Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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605. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if a contract has been awarded by his Department in respect of the etender for a national survey of urban gulls published on 16 March 2021; if so, the cost of the contract; when the survey will be completed; and when the results of the survey will be published. [39267/21]

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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606. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the challenges to providing such accurate estimates in respect of the etender published on 16 March 2021 for a national survey of urban seagulls and in relation to his Department’s statement on page 45 of its five-yearly obligatory report to the EU Commission in 2019 (details supplied); the steps being taken by the contractor to meet these challenges and or offset any impact they might have on the accuracy of the survey; and the degree of confidence he and his Department has that the challenges will be met by the survey to ensure its accuracy. [39268/21]

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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607. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department considered use of digital aerial reconnaissance for the national survey (details supplied) in respect of the etender published on 16 March 2021 for a national survey of urban seagulls; the reason digital aerial reconnaissance was not specified as a counting method in the etender documents; and the advantages of digital aerial reconnaissance over his Department’s prescribed counting method in its etender document, that is, observation and ground walked in addressing the challenges acknowledged by his Department in its five yearly report to the EU Commission in 2019. [39269/21]

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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608. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the urban seagull studies carried out in north Wales and in greater Birmingham in 2018 and 2019 (details supplied); and the implications this might have for his Department’s survey particularly if it is to inform policy in the interests of public health and safety under Article 9.1.a of the 1979 Birds Directive. [39270/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 605, 606, 607 and 608 together.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in my Department undertake regular monitoring and surveys of breeding seabird colonies around Ireland in order to provide an evidence base to inform conservation management measures and decisions. I am aware of the preliminary work that was undertaken by the British Trust for Ornithology in regions of Wales and England, where a random selection of 1km grid squares that were dominated by urban and suburban habitats were surveyed for breeding gulls, using several methods including drones and ground-based surveys. This work has allowed the derivation of correction factors that are to be incorporated into a mathematical model using data from randomly selected squares across Ireland and Britain where ground-based surveys were carried out. The model will take into account the different count results arising from the different counting methods used in the preliminary work.  Thus, it is envisaged that, when the data is analysed, statistically-robust population estimates will be produced for both Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gulls at various geographic levels.

As part of this collaborative work plan, and via a public procurement process, my Department issued a contract to an experienced and expert company to lead on the requisite Irish survey work. The network of NPWS conservation rangers has also undertaken a significant amount of the survey work which has helped keep the overall costs of this work down. The cost of the contract is €75,250 (excluding VAT).

The fieldwork aspects of this work finished in June this year and over 99% of the randomly generated squares were successfully covered. In addition, several other non-randomly generated squares were completed. The data from the Irish survey and contract is now undergoing Quality Assurance procedures. This is due to be completed in August and part of the deliverables is a report describing the numbers and distributions of breeding urban gulls recorded during the 2021 survey.  The data will then be shared with the UK JNCC to undertake the analysis as described above. It is not possible to give a  publication date at this point.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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609. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he has deferred policy formation and or decisions on potential actions to be taken in the interests of public health and safety under Article 9.1.a of the 1979 Birds Directive in respect of the etender published on 16 March 2021 for a national survey of urban seagulls (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39271/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The results of the survey that is being carried out on foot of the etender that was published in relation to a national survey of urban seagulls will feed into any policy formation and decisions on potential actions to be taken in this regard. The survey is currently underway and a report on findings is expected in the Autumn.