§ Kate HoeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answer given by the hon. Member for Basildon (Angela Smith), on 11 December 2003,Official Report, columns 577–78W, on hare coursing, what sources other than the principal sources cited in his answer he used to reach his decision to refuse a licence to a coursing club to net hares. [150049]
§ Angela SmithIn addition to the two principal sources of information referred to in my previous answer of 11 December 2003,Official Report, column 578W, an unpublished research thesis by Karina Dingerkus, completed in 1997, provided contextual data reporting a decline in the population of the Irish hare in Northern Ireland over the preceding years. Her thesis, entitled "The Distribution and Ecology of the Irish Hare Lepus timidus hibernicus in Northern Ireland", is lodged in the Science Library of the Queen's University of Belfast. Her findings were summarised and discussed in the report of the 2002 Survey carried out by Dr. Jane Preston and others.