Taoiseach promises National Parks and Wildlife Service will be beefed up 

Ireland's six national parks, such as Killarney, are at risk of further deterioration, report says. File picture: Valerie O'Sullivan

The Taoiseach has insisted the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) "will be well and truly enhanced in terms of resources and its status", despite promised reform dragging on for months.

Micheál Martin told the Dáil the NPWS would be beefed up by the end of the current Government term. He was responding to criticism over inaction on the biodiversity crisis and the still-unpublished report on reform of the NPWS by Social Democrats climate spokesperson Jennifer Whitmore.

A scathing report by experts handed to Government last June concluded the NPWS cannot meet current obligations, not to mind future targets in the recently enacted Climate Bill and EU biodiversity strategy.

The NPWS review was led by professor of botany at Trinity College Dublin Jane Stout, and Dr Micheál Ó Cinneide, a former director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

It had more than 3,000 submissions and marked the first time ever such a review took place in size and scope.

Staff within the NPWS are not to blame for the current predicament in the face of a biodiversity crisis, the authors said, but they are hamstrung by resources.

They added: "Stakeholders also perceive that they, and the service they work for, have been neglected for decades, in a political system that did not value nature and biodiversity."

Ireland's six national parks, such as Killarney, are at risk of further deterioration, the report added. The authors made 24 key recommendations.

Meanwhile, it was revealed this month that a dedicated wildlife crime unit, first announced in October 2020, has still only one member of staff almost 18 months on.

Mr Martin said further recruitment for the wildlife crime unit was currently under way.