A sum of £500,000 is provided for in the acquisition budget for 1994 and a further £1.5 million is available from the EU. The total expenditure will, however, depend on the site types purchased i.e. certain priority habitats are eligible for 75 per cent EC funding under LIFE and bird sites are eligible for 50 per cent co-funding. It is not the practice to give details of individual contracts.
To date a total of £1,142,233 has been spent this year on the acquisition of land by the National Parks and Wildlife Service for conservation purposes. Included in this figure is a total of £475,000 — 41 per cent — which has been spent on land which will be in national parks. Two-thirds of this was spent on acquisition of priority habitats. The rest is in a candidate special protection area for birds.