Sir, – Your editorial on natural heritage was both timely and thoughtful ("Losing our past in budget cuts", August 30th). However, it only began to tell the story of the impact of the attitude of the last government to the natural environment. The same environment on which we all rely entirely for our health, social wellbeing and our economy. Since 2011, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the State body tasked with protecting one of our nation's main assets, our biodiversity, has lost 67 per cent of its funding, and has only half the number of rangers that it needs to carry out its prescribed functions. Also since 2011, the State funding to the environmental non-government organisations has seen a reduction of 33 per cent on what was already a very low level of funding, being a mere 10 per cent to 20 per cent of that allocated per capita in the UK. These cuts resulted in a 44 per cent reduction in staff numbers in the sector, again from a very low level.
Add to this the fact that not one cent of lottery money was allocated for work on the natural environment, despite the inclusion of the natural environment as a good cause in the National Lotteries Act 2013.
Your final point regarding how lottery money is allocated, not by an independent trust, but through an almost totally opaque process by the Government, was a very important one and one that needs further debate. The existing process appears to driven by politics rather than the expressed needs of communities and civil society groups around the country. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL EWING,
Co-ordinator,
The Environmental Pillar,
Boyle, Co Roscommon.