Government ignores plight of hare

IRELAND’S appalling record on safeguarding endangered wildlife species has come into the spotlight again, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reminding us that key habitats requiring special attention are being neglected by the present government.

The reminder is timely, because the enlightened EU Habitats Directive appears to have been completely ignored by a government that for the first time in Irish history includes the “principled” Green Party.

Last year, the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland has inadequate conservation safeguards for species specifically protected by law in this country.

Major financial penalties may be imposed on Ireland if the government continues to drag its feet on implementing the Habitats Directive, a fate surely to be avoided in the present economic climate, apart altogether from the incumbent heritage and conservation issues.

High on the list of native species drawn up by our Parks and Wildlife Service and designated as having “poor conservation status” is the Irish hare, a creature renowned in Celtic mythology and one that graces our ecosystem.

The habitats of the hares are disturbed and torn apart by gangs of men rounding up members of this “high risk” species for coursing.

The coursing clubs themselves attest to this fact. Wildlife Service reports on baiting events obtained under FoI reveal that clubs had great difficulty last season finding enough hares for coursing.

This is well known to the Department of the Environment. Yet we have this incredible situation whereby the Government, cocking its collective nose at the Habitats Directive, has given coursing clubs carte blanche to harass, exploit, and kill members of an “at risk” species for fun and games.

The whole farce is compounded by the fact that it is a government that includes the Green Party that is authorising this rape of our wildlife heritage.

I do not doubt the personal integrity of Environment Minister John Gormley, or even that of the Green Party itself, in their vociferous pre-election opposition to hare coursing but the Government’s so-called “environmental policy” on wildlife conservation in general, and its attitude to the humble Irish hare in particular, is contemptible.

John Fitzgerald

Lower Coyne Street,

Callan,

Co Kilkenny