Questions

615. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 126 of 16 July 2025 and her predecessors reply in the context of the protection of school children, in addition to her Department’s undertaking “to review this matter with the HSE to determine whether there is a need to communicate further guidance on this matter to schools in the coming term”, if she will pro…

991. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No’s 148,149,150,151,152 of 16 July 2025, if he will provide this Deputy with a complete copy of the Department/NPWS’s correspondence concerning gulls and public health and safety with the HSE in 2017 as cited in his reply; if he will also provide copies of any consistent/similar correspondence …

992. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Parliamentary Question No’s 148,149,150,151,152 of 16 July 2025, and his statement in his reply that he is satisfied that the NPWS carries out their functions in a balanced and measured manner in line with the legislative provisions for the protection of wild birds, if he will confirm that he is also satisfied that, s…

993. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department or the National Parks and Wildlife Service has issued any public notices that it is perfectly legal under the Wildlife Acts 1976 and 2000 (Amended) to remove nests from occupied buildings provided they do not contain eggs or hatched chicks; if no such public notice has been issued, and as the Oireachtas ha…

994. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will provide a summary of all wildlife licences granted in the period 2019 to 2025 in respect of herring gulls and removal of their nests and eggs, such a summary to include the licence date, location, the reason for which licences were sought, the approved control actions; the specific legal grounds for the granting of th…

126. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Education and Youth in the context of the protection of schoolchildren, all school staff, teachers, support staff and caretakers, and their health and safety, if he is aware of serious harms being caused (and escalating) for several years now by high density, breeding gull colonies in many schools around the country; if she has noted the recent very stark warnings in…

148. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out in detail the specific "threats to public health and safety" that underpinned the legal justifications of the derogation for removal of nests and eggs of specified gull species in Balbriggan and its districts each of the years 2017 to 2023 inclusive, including i) such threats as were recognised by successive Departmen…

149. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the context of his Department's advice to his Ministerial predecessor which resulted in the revocation of the Balbriggan derogation (2017-2023, originally granted due to "a threat to public health and safety") for removal of nests and eggs of specified gull species, will the Minister inform the deputy as to whether the Depart…

150. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage given that he is no doubt aware that the State's Courts have consistently emphasised that protection of the health and safety of citizens is a paramount duty of the State within our legal framework, if he accepts, and if he will ensure, that protection of citizens' health and safety is, therefore, assuredly paramount across his …

151. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage with reference to the book entitled 'Seabirds Count' a census of breeding seabirds in Britain and Ireland (2015-2021), ISBN 9788416728602, (pub. Nov. 2023), and recurring acknowledgements in that book of the 'Lead Partner' role played by his Department/National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) in the conduct of the census over …

152. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage with reference to the published book entitled 'Seabirds Count' a census of breeding seabirds in Britain and Ireland (2015-2021), which deals with 25 species of seabirds, has the Minister noted that 70+ pages out of 484 pages in the book are given over to the escalating proliferation of high density urban-breeding gull colonies (…

193. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in the context of the recent and annually recurring very stark warnings in respect of Avian Flu issued by his Department, the Department of Health, the Health Surveillance Protection Centre, the Health and Safety Executive, and indeed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage/National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS…