Vol. 468 No. 4
300 Miss de Valera asked the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht the reason he has not put measures in place to ascertain the number of migratory game species being taken out of the country at air and sea ports. [15936/96]
The export of protected wild birds and protected wild animals is controlled under the Wildlife Act, 1976 (Control of Export of Fauna) Regulations, 1979, (S.I. No. 235 of 1979). This prohibits the export of certain wild species — live or dead — except under licence. These regulations do not apply to the export of specimens of legally shot game. There is no statutory requirement to ascertain the number of game species being exported from the country.
The National Parks and Wildlife Service of my Department monitors wild birds and assesses tourist shooting through the assessment of lands to determine the shooting capacity, the allocation of gundays and bag checks, etc. There is no evidence that hunting, including current levels of commercial shooting, pose a threat to migratory species. From an analysis of bag returns and bag checks carried out by NPWS staff, it has been found that the level of such shooting is not a threat to the conservation status of migratory species.
