Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Why do we do things like that to people who are the salt of the earth and who have held and maintained their farms and landholdings over the years since before An Taisce was formed? Local property owners inherited the land and fought hard to keep it. The witnesses have talked about people being prevented from cutting hedges along the roads. Do they realise that people's lives are in danger? We have no objections to hedges being cut inside the ditch but hedges outside the ditch on the public road and thoroughfare should be cut all year round. I have never seen a bird standing up outside the ditch and say the traffic or people passing by are doing it harm because they are not that foolish. They go inside the ditch to nest. What we are talking about is nonsense. People use public roads to travel or to walk to do exercise, which we are told to do for our health, but in many places they cannot because the roads are too narrow and they are out in the middle of the road. Pedestrians are getting killed because of this. Mr. Lumley did his very best to stop people cutting turf. He may have some other way of heating his house and I am glad if he has, but in country places a lot of other people do not. They depend on cutting a bit of turf for the fire and he fought to stop them. We have that rectified and many people can cut their turf now who were told they could not do so.