The government is examining the potential for an "insane" pilot scheme to shoot seals with high-powered rifles from boats. The scheme would see licenses granted potentially in Kerry and Cork to protect fishermen's catches.

The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has waded into the controversy over the redesignation of the whole of the River Blackwater in Co. Cork as a protected area for the freshwater pearl mussel.

It must be assumed that the Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) advocated the badly needed protection of Killarney National Park in many ways before it took the dramatic step of asking the United Nations to suspend the park’s priceless designation as a world biosphere reserve.