Our national parks are brimming with potential. How best to harvest that?

Meeting climate and biodiversity targets will mean radical changes to how our lands and seas are used; national parks must be the reference points for how that can be done

The State purchased the Conor Pass in Co Kerry.

The announcement of a new national park on sea and land around Kerry’s Dingle Peninsula brings to eight the total number of national parks in the country. Individually, these are small compared to national parks in many other countries but they encompass a broad geographical range of habitats across Ireland (only the midlands and Northern Ireland are now without one). 

Kerry Seas/ Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara, Ciarraí is the first time we’ve had a marine element, bringing the immense diversity of sea life into our national parks network.