Fianna Fáil TD for Cork South West, and party Spokesperson on Environment, Climate Action and Biodiversity, Christopher O’Sullivan has welcomed a major overhaul of the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) as part of a €55m package to restructure it as an executive agency.
Deputy O’Sullivan has been a strong advocate for change in this regard and commented, “It’s no secret that the National Parks and Wildlife Service have been struggling to cope with the scale of the work in terms of biodiversity loss and habitat loss in Ireland.
“We are all familiar with situations where the personnel are not on the ground to deal with some of the enforcement issues and infringements that have plagued Ireland for many years.”
The Cork South West TD continued: “But in the past 18 months we have seen a change in approach from NPWS where we have seen them getting actively involved; for example, the establishment of nature reserves right across Ireland. So, this restructuring and the fact that they will essentially be an independent body under the Dept of Housing, is a very welcome move.”
He added: “The recruitment of 60 extra staff will help them to deal with issues of biodiversity loss on the ground. But the most exciting aspect of all this is the situation where our SCCs and SPAs and areas of very rich habitat can be enhanced, protected and we can create new nature reserves going forward.
“I’d also like to commend Ministers Malcolm Noonan and Darragh O’Brien for their work on this.”
