Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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392. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he has taken to ensure full, public visibility of the "available data" that the NPWS is using in order to inform decisions on the review of the Open Seasons Order and transparency as to whom the "stakeholders" are that NPWS is engaging with as part of this public consultation. [24092/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The public consultation for the review of the Open Seasons Order was published on the 22^ndMarch and was open to everyone to put their views forward on an individual or organisational basis until 3^rdMay 2023. A productive stakeholder engagement meeting was held in Dublin on Friday 21^stApril with stakeholder groups invited across various interests such as hunting, farming, eNGOs & Heritage. All of these interests were represented at the meeting.

Datasets that informed the review of the Open Seasons Order include those listed below:

Ireland’s Article 12 Report for the period 2013 – 2018

The status of Red Grouse in Ireland and the effects of land use, habitat and habitat quality on their distribution.Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 50. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin, Ireland.

Countryside Bird Survey: Status and trends of common and widespread breeding birds 1998-2016. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 115. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ireland.

Irish Wetland Bird Survey: Waterbird Status and Distribution 2009/10-2015/16. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 106. National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Ireland.

Irish Wetland Bird Survey (I-WeBS)

Bird Atlas 2007-11: the breeding and wintering birds of Britain and Ireland. Thetford: BTO; 2013.

The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland: 1988-1991. Author(s): Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A.. Published: January 1993 Burke B, Lewis LJ, Fitzgerald N, Frost T, Austin G, Tierney TD.

Estimates of waterbird numbers wintering in Ireland, 2011/12–2015/16. Irish Birds. 2018;11:1-2. Gilbert, Gillian, Andrew Stanbury, and Lesley Lewis.

Birds of conservation concern in Ireland 4: 2020–2026."Irish Birds 43 (2021): 1-22.

birdwatchireland.ie/app/uploads/2021/04/BOCCI-2020-2026.pdf

Further information on Ireland's Open Seasons Order and the public consultation can be found on my Department’s website and that of the National Parks and Wildlife Service at the respective links:

www.gov.ie/en/consultation/c98d4-public-consultation-on-amending-the-open-seasons-order-for-birds/

www.npws.ie/legislation/irish-law/open-seasons-order.