In the very limited time available to me I would like to thank the Minister for introducing this very welcome Supplementary Estimate and I support it. The zoo has at present overdraft facilities from the bank for £150,000. This money will be used up in the next two weeks and the bank was unwilling to grant them additional overdraft facilities without this indication of Government support today. Because of the crisis facing the zoo this Supplementary Estimate is both opportune and welcome. However, it is only a temporary measure. We need a clearcut policy from the Government to ensure the future of our zoo. This policy should be accompanied by realistic funding in order to ensure that this great national asset is preserved.
The Government appointed a zoo committee in 1989 under Mr. Mick Doyle which reported to the Minister for Education in July 1990. I appeal to the Government to accept the recommendations proposed by the zoo committee, including the recommendation to establish a new State company to take over the zoo. Immediate funding of at least £5 million and extra land in the Phoenix Park should be provided as a matter of urgency. The zoo has 30 acres out of roughly 2,000 acres in the Phoenix Park and of that 30 acres ten are covered by water. The zoo covers only a very small section of the Phoenix Park. Because of the genuine concern of a number of people I would ask the Government to introduce new animal legislation to monitor the welfare of the zoo animals and to deal with the granting or refusal of zoo licences. We should build a national aquarium in Dublin Zoo and serious consideration should be given to the possibility of a partnership between the Government and private enterprise with regard to the zoo.
As is well known, Dublin Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the world, having opened to the public in 1830. It is generally acknowledged to be one of the most beautiful of national zoos because of its location in extensive parkland and its being landscaped around a central lake. It also enjoys the great advantage of being conveniently available to a major populated city. Because of its location in the capital city it is relatively easy for people from all over Ireland to have access to the zoo. It has been visited by 5,133,723 people over the last ten years and by 886,341 people over the last two years.
As the national zoo, it has today, and will have over the next fifty years, a role to play that was never envisaged when the zoo was founded in 1830. From the point of view of education the zoo has major potential. During a visit to the zoo both adults and children are introduced to exotic and some native species which they can easily view and associate with.
The education officer at Dublin Zoo has developed an education programme which is targeted at school children, particularly primary school children, but which also covers secondary schools and third level institutions and of course all the visitors to the zoo. This education programme is aimed at stimulating an interest in the animal kingdom and in global conservation issues and at disseminating information which will make the visitor more conscious of the threat that all animals are under if the rate of destruction of habitat all over the world continues at its present rate.
With regard to conservation, the rate of habitat destruction is so great that it is estimated that one-third of all known species — plant and animals — will be extinct by the end of the century.
Conservation is about safeguarding as far as possible the continuity of the genetic diversity of all species. No assurances can be given on the survival of many species as their habitat is under threat. Many species are doing extremely badly in the wild even though they are protected internationally and have special reserves set aside for them in their natural habitat.
The number of animals that are in danger of becoming extinct increases every year. There is an international scientific community supported by Governments in Europe, North America and many other parts of the world which has developed a sophisticated framework for the protection of species on a global basis. Dublin Zoo at present plays a role in this and we have many animals from zoos all over the world in Dublin on breeding loan — for example gorillas, orangutans, white rhinoceros, snow leopards and so on. Dublin Zoo also has many animals abroad on breeding loan.
The existence of this framework is a measure of the experience of the scientific zoo community on the inadequacies of relying on the survival of species in the wild and on the advantage, from a conservation point of view, of having a body of knowledge on husbandry of the endangered species worldwide to ensure their chance of long term survival.
The zoo is also a major tourist attraction and a recreation and general amenity attraction. Dublin Zoo at present is looked on by many people as an old zoo, where transition and improvement is necessary and desirable, but it requires investment and resources which Dublin Zoo cannot generate by its own efforts. Most zoos in Europe and North America are supported by public funds and this has resulted in better facilities in their zoos. Belfast Zoo, for example, gets an annual maintenance grant of £500,000 together with all its capital costs and tens of millions of pounds have been spent developing the Belfast Zoo in recent years.
