Environmental Policy
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Anne Rabbitte (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I thank the Minister of State for being in the House this afternoon to take this Commencement matter in relation to Merlin Woods in County Galway.
Merlin Woods is a place of sanctuary for many people, both physically and mentally. It is also the habitat of many animals. It is regrettable that, in the past few weeks, Galway City Council has commenced the felling of 3.5 acres of trees in Merlin Woods. We understand that a number of the trees fell during Storm Éowyn and the removal of those trees is essential but felling 3.5 acres is beyond belief. It is not going to stop at 3.5 acres - 8.5 acres of felling will take place. It is hard to believe those trees were planted in 1960 by Coillte. It was a commercial decision to plant them. It then fell under the remit of Galway County Council and afterwards the city council. When it came to the decision process and communication, it all fell to Galway City Council.
Councillors in the local area have no say whatsoever in relation to the felling of the trees. I understand about the fallen trees from a health and safety perspective. Coming from Portumna where there are 1,500 acres of forestry at my back door, I completely understand. However, I do not understand the idea of felling trees when any of us who know Merlin Woods know that it is a sanctuary for walkers, runners and those who just need a quiet space.
In that regard, it was disappointing that, when the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, was called upon to take responsibility and flex its muscles when it came to statutory powers, it had none because the response of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage was that the NPWS did not have any statutory responsibility in relation to the management of Merlin Woods. At the end of the day, if a farmer was cutting down trees or burning at the back of their field, the NPWS would not be long finding its statutory responsibility.
This has a lot to do with biodiversity as well. While I have talked about the humans, I will also talk about a lot of the nature that lives within Merlin Woods. There is the red squirrel, which is a protected species by any manner or means. A cricket cannot normally move when you cross the Shannon, but there was no problem here in tearing into taking down the trees, with no consideration whatsoever for the natural habitat. I find it a little bit irksome that the NPWS could not have worked with the local authority and supported the local community as well as listened to the elected representatives on the ground. The fact that the voice of local representatives was null and void in this whole transaction is very disingenuous.
This morning when I was coming up, I noticed that the traffic had gone beyond Bóthar na dTreabh. It has gone out to the N6 today. When the ring road is built, this will be people's only sanctuary. People have to realise that, in Galway, the sea is to our back. Galway is built up in the middle and there is only one green space. That is Merlin Woods. What we are doing today is just carving it down. Where are people going to find their sanctuary?

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29