National Parks and Wildlife Service
Dail Éireann — 2021-06-24
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Malcolm Noonan (GP), Carlow-Kilkenny

As I stated, the first intake of 20 rangers will be deployed in the coming weeks. On the specific issue of responding to particular incidents, yesterday the Minister and I were able to sign off on a memorandum of understanding with An Garda Síochána on tackling wildlife crime. This will bring a more strategic approach to the work we are doing. Later this year we will establish a dedicated wildlife crime unit within the NPWS, which is a first for this country. That will add additional resources and bring a much more strategic approach to tackling wildlife crime in the preservation of crime scenes and in preparing books of evidence. We have had a number of high profile prosecutions in wildlife crime in the last year and that is down to the dedication and hard work of our NPWS staff throughout the country. I assure the Deputy that we will meet that staffing requirement in the coming months and it will have a significant impact in collaboration and in working with agencies on the ground.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-06-24