Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1988 > Committee of Public Accounts > Report - Appropriation Accounts 1984

APPENDIX 21

(1) LAND AFFORESTATION

(2) THE FOX POPULATION

26 November, 1986.

Clerk to Committee of Public Accounts, Leinster House, Dublin 2.

With reference to my attendance at a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on 23rd October, 1986 and your letter of 18th November, I set out below the additional information which I undertook to supply to the Committee.

I (a)On the 31st October, 1986 the land immediately available for planting by the Forest and Wildlife Service of this Department was some 19,960 hectares.

(b)The net area of bare land acquired from the end of 1983 to 31/10/86 was 17,840 hectares of which some 16,470 hectares was plantable.

(c)The area of land afforested from the end of 1983 to April 1986 was 14,570 hectares.

Statistics are not kept in a form which would readily allow the Department to identify whether the land planted and the land acquired in the periods referred to were the same. However, the Department aims to plant available land in the first planting season after its acquisition or as soon as possible thereafter.

II As regards the questions raised about the wild fox population the position is as follows:—

Briefly, because of the highly covert nature of their movements, it is understandably very difficult to get accurate figures of the wild fox population in Ireland. The most recent research study commissioned by the Department for the period 1980 to 1985 indicates that foxes taken for their pelts are predominantly juvenile and male. This study concludes that in view of this and results of similar studies elsewhere which have shown that red fox populations have a considerable capacity for regeneration and expansion, and because of large excess of juveniles exists in the main fox hunting period (winter) the killing of foxes for the fur trade mainly reduces the male component of the juvenile population which normally carries a large surplus. The fox is an opportunistic, omnivorous animal which eats fruit, berries and insects and also preys on birds and small mammals. The fact that it has such a broad food base, which is in no danger of becoming scarce, encourages greater reproductivity.

There is no evidence at present to suggest that the fox is in danger of becoming extinct. However, the Department will continue to monitor the position and should any indication of a threat to the wild life fox population become apparent, appropriate action will be taken.

Yours sincerely,

P. WHOOLEY,

Secretary.

An Roinn Turasóireachta, Iascaigh agus Foraoiseachta,

(Department of Tourism, Fisheries and Forestry).