asked the Minister for Fisheries the number of prosecutions that have been instigated for the trapping of animals under the relevant section of the Wildlife Act, 1976, since its introduction.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wildlife Act Prosecutions.
10.
To date no such prosecution has been instigated by my Department.
Is the Minister aware that the Act dealing with wildlife which became law in June last is ineffective? There has been wholesale trapping of foxes and it is scandalous that the abuse has not been stopped and people prosecuted. Tens of thousands of foxes have been exported in the last six months.
While the legislation is excellent the fact of the matter is that when I was appointed Minister no staff had been recruited to implement the Act which was passed by the previous Government. We are now in the course of recruiting staff, authorised officers in particular, to cope with the problem. I recently set up the Wildlife Council, my advisory council, to supervise all these arrangements. We are now doing something practical about the matter and I hope it will work out successfully because this is a non-contentious area.
How many extra staff has the Minister recruited?
We are in the course of recruiting them at present. We have appointed the council and we are in the course of recruiting the staff. We now have a budget as a result of January's budget.
Were any staff recruited in the past nine months?
We inherited a situation where there was legislation with no regulations and no staff. We are now in the course of framing the regulations, setting up the council and recruiting the staff. Interviews are taking place at present.