I propose to take Questions Nos. 348 to 351, inclusive, together.
The minutes of the first three meetings of the Committee were only finally agreed at the fourth meeting in February 2020 due to detailed inputs from Committee members which required further record updating and intra-membership correspondences.
The first Interim Report of the Urban Gulls Consultative Committee was finalised and submitted to the Department in April 2020, this was followed up by a Minority Report on the Interim Report from one member of the Committee which subsequently led to the Chairpersons' Review of the Minority Report. The result of this was that the Interim Report was never deemed completed. Subsequently, the Chair of the Committee completed his tenure and stepped down to pursue other work and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) resources were primarily focused on the urgent need to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Through the work of the recently appointed Chairperson to the Committee it is clear that the recommendations in the Interim Report are finally agreed and my Department will now assess those recommendations and determine the resource and other implications (including financial and legal) with a view to putting a plan in place to action them where appropriate. Advice and input will also be sought from the European Commission. These four sets of minutes and the two reports will be published imminently on the NPWS website.
The Urban Gulls Consultative Committee had presentations from the following expert individuals:
- 23rd October 2019 - Associate Professor Barry McMahon on Gulls and Public Health
- 23rd October 2019 - Peter Rock, UK Expert on Gulls on Managing Urban Gull Populations
- 25th November 2019 - Dr Gary Goggins, Environmental Sociologist (NUIG) on The Use of Participatory Approaches for Addressing Human-Environment Concerns
- 4th February 2020 - Dr Dearbhaile Morris on The AREST (Anti-microbial resistance and the Environment – Sources, Persistance, Transmission and Risk Management) Project
Minister O'Brien took all of the information available into account when making the decision to sign the Wild Birds Declaration 2021/22, including the views of the above experts.
