Mr. Padraic Joyce:

Reference was made in one of the questions to road safety. If a farmer has to apply to a local authority to cut roadside hedges, it can take two weeks to get a response and meanwhile the danger is increasing. In the month of August roads are extremely busy.

The Chairman asked why hedges in his area have not been cut. I see it as well in my area. It should be remembered that hedge cutting is a huge cost on farmers as they have to bring in a contractor to get the work done. Contractors have only so many weeks to do the work. As my colleague said, only one fifth of hedges are cut because of the huge cost involved. Some farmers cannot afford it. The number of hedges that are cut is not a huge issue but it is a reasonable ask to allow farmers who want to cut hedges in the month of August for good farming practice to do so.