Niall Hatch

Well, it's a very important issue, and thank you for discussing it on the programme.

Just yet, to back up what you're saying, I'm certainly not a fanatic.

I like cats very much myself.

I think that they're very...

noble and beautiful creatures and I do enjoy watching them.

I don't have pet cats myself but they're a creature that I greatly respect and I definitely understand why so many people hold them in such great affection.

However, we have a situation in Ireland where our nature is incredibly depleted.

We have amongst the worst environmental record in all of Europe and it's coming against a backdrop now where cats can have an impact on species whereas a few decades ago perhaps they wouldn't have because those bird species and other animal species were doing a lot better.

So if you look at it against the backdrop of the fact that we currently, in Ireland, 63% of Ireland's bird species are now considered at risk of extinction.

Now, that's not the fault of the cats, in most cases, bringing those species down.

But the fact is, it's now at the level where, for some of our ground-nesting wading birds, for example, also birds like corn crakes, birds that nest colonial, like the sand martins there at Harper's Island, or like birds that have gone to seabird colonies, one cat can actually have a huge effect on the population.

So I think it's about learning, realizing that we humans are already taking such a toll on the natural world.

Anything we can do that will help to lessen that burden really will help our wildlife.

And so, especially at this time of year, this is when sort of casualties and fatalities among birds are highest because you have a lot of young birds just leaving the nest at the moment.

They're very naive.

They don't know much about the world around them.

They're not clued into the threats or dangers around them as the adults would be.

You take them a few weeks to sort of learn the ropes.

So, you know, it's not a compromise really, but we would encourage people where possible to keep their cats in, especially early in the morning and in the evening and during the night time.

At this time, during the bird nesting season, when they are particularly vulnerable.