Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am not from a rural area, but I am happy to take part in the discussion. I am interested in Deputy Ó Cuív's point about scattered communities. They are not scattered communities; they are communities, but to the person with another experience they may look at times to be scattered.

I am grateful for that remark.

I want to focus on heritage. Our culture has no context without heritage and without culture we have no art. When we think about heritage, we have to presume that includes our national cultural institutions. It is the tunnelled buildings on Moore Street. It is the built and the natural. It is the Giant's Causeway and Brú na Bóinne. It is also our landscapes and hedgerows, which we will be discussing at length tomorrow. I appeal to this committee to understand that the Bill proposed tomorrow is anything about a heritage Bill. I appeal to Deputy Eamonn Ó Cuív's party to protect our hedgerows. They provide a vital resource to many species of wildlife. Our hedgerows are a pathway for all of those species and for our pollinators given that we do not have natural forests across this island. There is scientific evidence against this Bill from within the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. It runs against the grain of all local authority proposals and strategies for heritage.

I appeal for Fianna Fáil's support for the amendments tomorrow so that we do not widen the opportunity for members of our farming community to cut hedgerows. The state of our built and natural heritage, as the Deputy said, is a significant economic asset, marketed abroad by Fáilte Ireland. It is scandalous, given that contribution to our marketing abroad for both our foreign and domestic tourists, that those sites and the people who invest in them might be under-resourced. We need to analyse that in the context of us pushing this image abroad. It is scandalous that we would have under-resourced heritage sites. It would be threatening our heritage in a way that we will see tomorrow. I appeal to the Minister to consider that Bill tomorrow. I appeal to Deputy Ó Cuív and Fianna Fáil to do likewise.