Vol. 518 No. 1
90 Mr. Kenny asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage Gaeltacht and the Islands if she will provide an up-to-date register of serving wildlife rangers in each county including name and contact number, remit and current responsibilities; the proposals for further responsibilities, facilities and resources to enable staff to carry out their duties in a professional manner; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10935/00]
I will forward a list of conservation rangers to the Deputy shortly. This list will include district conservation officers and other supervisory grades. It will also show the contact numbers he requested.
I am pleased to inform the Deputy that there has been an unprecedented recruitment drive for conservation rangers in the past two years, which should be completed this month. There will then be a national network of 90 conservation rangers with 29 supervisory officers.
The remit of the conservation ranger is best summarised in the job description, a copy of which is also available for the Deputy.
Briefly it covers: enforcement of the Wildlife Act, 1976; implementation of the European birds directive and habitats directive management of State lands (nature reserves, national parks) for conservation, including supervision of public use of these areas; monitoring conservation areas; liaison with local communities and landowners; wildlife surveys; giving talks and lectures to schools and other groups.
There is a proposal to extend the remit of the conservation ranger to include the reporting of damage to national monuments.
The conservation rangers are very well equipped for their duties. All rangers have vans plus access to four wheel drive vehicles as required. They all have high quality professional and safety equipment such as protective clothing, binoculars, mobile telephones and professional text books. The cost to my Department to equip each field officer at the outset is in the region of £10,000 and the highest of standards apply.
All new rangers are given training in professional subjects and health and safety matters amounting to 15 weeks in the first three years of service and in service training for rangers is also available on an ongoing basis. I am satisfied that all the necessary resources are available to the rangers to enable them to carry out their duties in a professional manner.
