Duchas gets the bird

THE bungling bureaucrats of Duchas (the Heritage Service) have done more to endanger than save the hen harrier, with their protection plan for the surviving 90 to 100 breeding pairs on more than half a million acres of North Munster uplands.

Whatever their knowledge of bird life, the Heritage Service has shown a worrying lack of understanding of human life in their approach to this exercise.

Their apparent willingness to walk roughshod over farmers and their livelihoods sheds new light on farmers' frequent complaints of overbearing officialdom in their dealings with the Government and its agencies.