Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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238. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of licences that have been issued in the past five years under Sections 23(6) of the Wildlife Act 1976 to ‘capture or kill humanely, or capture and humanely kill, a protected wild animal of a species specified in the licence for educational, scientific or other purposes as shall be so specified’; the species involved; and the nature of the related educational, scientific and other purposes. [39689/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The vast majority of licences issued under Section 23(6) are for activities relating to surveying and assessment of species, and thus are better categorised as capture and release. These activities include population counts, identification surveys, research and other such studies, but also works such as translocation of species in order to protect it from potential works such as flood relief schemes, road works etc. This licence does also allow for activities relating to predator control.

Table 1 outlines the number of licences issued under Section 23 of the Wildlife Act 1976 for each of the last five years. In total, 866 licences have issued since 2020 up to and including 30 September 2024.

Table 2 outlines the species of animal for which licences were issued over the last five years.

Table 1

Table 2

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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239. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of licences that have been issued in the past five years under Sections 22 (9)(a) of the Wildlife Act 1976 to ‘capture and humanely kill, a protected wild bird of a species specified in the licence for such educational, scientific or other purposes as shall be so specified’; the species involved; and the nature of the related educational, scientific and other purposes. [39690/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The number of licences issued under Section 22 of the Wildlife Act 1976 for each of the past five years is set out in the table below. In total, 190 licences have issued since 2020 up to and including 30 September 2024. These licences, referring to Section 22 & 34 of the Act, allow the licence holder to capture protected wild birds with the use of certain traps and snares.

Table 2 sets out the species of bird for which licences were issued during the same time period.

Licences are issued to allow for various activities including removal from work area, predator control, capture for breeding, feather sampling, tagging, accidental or intended capture, GPS tagging, to commence a breeding programme, conservation, protection of ground nesting waders, genetic sampling, collection of barn owl carcases for national road fatality monitoring.