Vol. 465 No. 1
20 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the steps, if any, he is taking to increase the number of personnel in the wildlife service in an effort to protect endangered species of wildlife whose numbers have been depleted in recent years. [9182/96]
The former Wildlife Service now forms part of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS. I am pleased to be in a position to inform the Deputy that the NPWS has recently recruited additional research staff which included three ecologists, a marine scientist and a data entry technician. In addition, a reorganisation of NPWS management staff is taking place which involves the filling of a number of vacancies through promotion. As I regard this area as very important, I will seek to allocate more staff to it as resources permit.
