Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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252. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government regarding the OPW’s long-recurring culling programme for the grey squirrel populations in the National Botanic Gardens and other sites (details supplied), if he will he arrange for his Department or the National Parks and Wildlife Service to list the complete criteria applied when adding species to the Third Schedule, under which a wildlife species may be classed as a pest species. [30537/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) of my Department is responsible for the implementation of the Wildlife Acts and the European Communities (Birds and Natural Habitats) Regulations 2011 (S.I. No. 477/2011), both of which deal with invasive alien species.

The Grey Squirrel is already included on Part 2 of the Third Schedule to the 2011 Regulations. It is classed as an invasive alien species of national concern and subject to the restrictions set out in Regulation 49 of the 2011 Regulations.

For convenience, the Schedule can be accessed via the following link: