Wildlife Rehabilitation Support Scheme: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-04-29 ============================================================ Joe Conway (IND), Cultural and Educational Panel Gabhaim buíochas leis an bhfoireann seo ar mo chúl, Senator Malcolm Noonan, and his comhghleacaithe ansin, a thóg an rún seo os ár gcomhair inniu. It is lovely to see the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, again. I am beginning to think he is one of the most clear-headed Ministers I have come across, and very progressive too. I think some of the soundings he made one of the times he was here formally brought music to Senator Flaherty's ears and mine when he mentioned the possibility of having a national park in the midlands. The mention of the islands project seems to be a continuation of that. I hope he is crowned with success in that. Law 19 of 2022 in Spain would probably not be immediately familiar to many in the House. Indeed, it was not familiar to me until I started reading around this subject this morning. It is a peculiar facet of the legislature in Spain that if a proposal gains 500,000 signatures and is brought to parliament, it necessitates the enactment of a law on foot of those signatures. One was brought forward in 2022 which not alone achieved the 500,000 but got 638,000 signatures. Basically, this legislation gave an inherent voice in legislation to nature. It involved a section of land south-east of Murcia, which was a lagoon separated by a small isthmus from the Mediterranean, but in the 1970s, through the wisdom of man and woman, instead of leaving one entrance to the lagoon, they cut three extra artificial entries to it and, basically, within four decades, desecrated the whole area. Now they are left with the prospect of trying to retrieve it and regenerate the nature because it was covered with a type of algae. This work is ongoing now but it is a very expensive project. It shows, however, that if there is people power giving a voice to nature, it can be done and it becomes subservient to figures. We are, as we often say, legating the environment to the next generation and the generation after that. It is a precious gift that we throw away at our peril. Senator Flaherty talked about Longford. One of the great joys of my Longford childhood was going to sleep of a summer night and listening to the sound of the corncrake. Of course, those Members who were privileged to live in the 1960s and 1970s will remember the corncrake. Not many people here fit into that bracket, I think, but it is a most distinctive sound. It sounds like a Caribbean bullfrog from a distance. It practically disappeared from Ireland because of extensive farming, mainly silage cutting and forage harvesters cutting very close to the ground and ruining the ground nests. Anyway, to reminisce even further, I was getting off the ferry in Inishbofin about four years ago and as I stepped outside the perimeter of the ferry area I could not believe my ears when I heard the sound, clear as day, of the corncrake. I was looking just this morning at the reports from Inishbofin and, lo and behold, the corncrake numbers are coming back. It is because of the way the island is curated and the inspired way the locals and the parklands and wildlife people are helping with it, including into the Shannon Callows. The corncrake is an example of the possibilities we have for species that are under threat and it is a success story. My Independent colleague in Galway West, Thomas Welby, who is contesting the by-election there, has assigned to me the lovely task of canvassing Inishbofin over the next week and a half. I am looking forward to that. Never will I do such a joyous piece of canvassing as going around that island serenaded by the corncrake on those summer evenings. I am just praying for the sort of weather we have outside today. Incidentally, if time permits me, I will speak about getting close to nature and the privileges we have. In our house we have a very small, very modest balcony off our bedroom, and in the past couple of weeks we have noticed that undue attention was being paid to our balcony by a pair of collared doves. I had an old pair of runners out there drying after walking the beach in Tramore, and the other day we were absolutely blown away when we found what the birds had done. Architecturally, collared doves are not marvellous; they build a very haphazard nest. However, they built a nest on our balcony beside the pair of decrepit runners and there are two beautiful eggs there. They are sitting there dutifully and I love them. I love them being there, but my wife does not appreciate being wakened at 5 o'clock in the morning to their awful call. It comes as if they were shouting for Man United because it goes "United, hoo, hoo, hoo". It does not go down very well. Anyway, in Ireland we are very privileged to have nature beside us. Two weeks ago we had the proceeds of crime Bill here and I was just wondering, to finance these rehabilitation measures that we have for wildlife, why could we not use some measure of the proceeds of crime or, indeed, the proceeds from those who are fined for the abuse of animals, or even the hundreds of thousands of livestock we send abroad? Could there not be a headage payment put on each one of them to put money back into this very reasonable fund? Sin mo cheannsa don lá inniu. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-04-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:52+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-04-29