Over the weekend, we saw a programme by the legendary broadcaster, David Attenborough, showcasing Killarney National Park. While there has been some progress on the contracts for the general operatives who work there and who, throughout the Covid pandemic, drove vehicles, tended to the herds, built fences, walkways, bridges and benches and even undertook a fire safety course, all of the praise we heard masks significant problems. We need an upland management scheme. We need a plan to deal with the deer and wild goats, from which practically every sapling in the national park is under threat, and we need a proper 15-year plan to finally eliminate rhododendron. If we are serious about it, we need to increase the number of staff. In 1983, there were 70 staff. There are now 12. Will the Government take steps to maintain what Attenborough described as astonishing scenery, animal dramas and wildlife spectaculars to match anything he had ever seen?

I commend that wonderful documentary. It was a great credit to all of our staff in the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS. The strategy review of the NPWS the Government committed to and which it is now implementing is in train. The number of staff, including rangers and general operatives, across our national parks has increased significantly over the last year. I agree with the Deputy on deer management. It is an issue the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, and I have been working on through the deer forum. We need to look at a significant cull of deer across the country. We need numbers and data. We certainly need a whole renewed approach to the issue because it is impacting very negatively on our biodiversity and, from reports I have read, particularly on the ability of the woodlands in Killarney National Park to regenerate naturally when the removal of rhododendron takes place. There is a significant amount of work to be done and a lot of work is under way with regard to the staffing levels we put in place over the last year in particular.