Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the secretariat for the work it has done on this, given there has been quite a lot of work over and back between different agencies and Departments. The conclusion and the recommendation we are making is, once again, to recommend to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government that it would carry out the following: to introduce legislation specifically dealing with the height and maintenance of trees and hedges or to consider amending section 108(3) of the Environmental Protection Agency Act to cater for the height of trees and hedges and procedures when dealing with disputes in regard to the issue; and to inform the Department that this committee is recommending that it implement one of the above as a matter of urgency. We also recommend the following: the new or amended legislation should provide for height restrictions as to the specified height of a tree in a neighbouring garden, for example, no higher than 2 m; it should state that all attempts have been made between the neighbours to resolve the issues in advance of contacting the Department or local authority for assistance in reaching a solution to their issues; the Department or authority should then have the power to investigate the issue and, once satisfied, issue sanctions on the offending neighbour to resolve the issue and bring their tree or hedge in line with the required height, as set out in the legislation. If there is still non-compliance, this should then go to mediation and, failing mediation, there should be an option to bring the individual before the courts and apply a penalty or a fine, similar to those imposed in the UK.

I believe it is important to do that because what we and the secretariat found is that there is a very haphazard approach from all of the different local authorities, none of which seem to have the same by-laws in regard to these issues. Serious vexation has been caused in this area and some form of legislation is needed to deal with that. That is our recommendation. We also recommend that we close this petition as a matter of course and deem we have dealt with it fully.