Irene O'Brien

So the Inchiqui Islands, there's two main islands.

There's Inchiqui North and Inchiqui South.

There's also a couple of other smaller islands that are a part of what they would call the Inchiqui Group.

They're designated a special area of conservation for breeding grey seals.

After the Blascot Islands, it is the best grey seal colony in the country.

They're also designated for Macair, which is coastal grassland.

Ireland is the only country in Europe that actually has Macair.

The thing is, it's become a refuge for wildlife because there haven't been people there.

So that's the thing.

So that's now where we have to find the balance.

And in the last few years, what have you seen?

During the summer months, which is obviously the prime breeding time, there's a lot more people going to the islands because there's a much more demand for people to find these wildlife havens and isolated areas.

So, yeah, there's more pressures, yeah.

Yeah, so on a good day, you could have 120, 150 even.

You know, if you get a run of good weather, there's maybe three boat operators and some of them do two or three trips a day.

You know, this would have been a place, a good place for nesting birds.

So, for example, we're looking at an old house over there.

So there used to be a pair of chuff in that chimney for many, many years, but they're gone.

And, you know, chuff are...

are definitely very vulnerable to disturbance.