Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I might start off with a few questions. It seems that in the past 40 years that enormous damage has been done to the wildlife of this State in that a large number of species have been reduced in range and in number and there have been significant changes to the natural habitat of those species. It seems also during that period that major difficulties have arisen in farming. Farmers are becoming a rare species in the State also. There are only half the number of farmers now that there was 100 years ago. Cattle farmers are earning on average €12,500 a year, which is an incredibly low figure. It also seems that this Bill does not necessarily go anywhere in alleviating some of those difficulties and solving some of the problems that have been mentioned.

We had people in with us last week who mentioned that there was only one official application for a licence for controlled burning in the whole State, while 70 other fires were lit, not necessarily by farmers in the State. It seems that the Bill we are arguing about is irrelevant to the real lives of many people within the country, both farmers and conservationists. Much more has to be done in working that. It has been mentioned that rotational burning could be useful for farmers and I would like the conservationists to answer a question on whether rotational burning could be done in a manner which will achieve conservation objectives and the needs of the farmers.

With regard to the hedges, one of the issues is the broadening of the time span in which hedges can be cut. I live in a small lane in the countryside and half the hedges have not been cut at this stage. There does not seem to be a pressure coming from the farmers on the ground to have the hedges cut in the general sense as it is nearly January before some of them are cutting their hedges.

Do members and witnesses find it striking that the Road Safety Authority did not have an input in the Bill and that the Minister did not meet with Road Safety Authority, which is the body tasked with road safety in the State and yet it did not have a role in identifying a solution to some of the road safety issues there? We have a mechanism to deal with hedges as they affect visibility on the roads, not just during the window of opportunity but at any time of the year. If there is a problem with road safety surely the logic would be to make the section 70 provision far more useful and easy to access in situations where the hedges have an impact on road safety.

I thank the IWAI for their contribution on the canals and waterways because there were practical amendment that we can consider to arrive at some of the solutions that the IWAI mentioned. It seems onerous that the people who are key to the canals are being forced into a rigmarole of making an application. Do the witnesses think that Waterways Ireland plays a positive role in the management of the canals? I am from Navan and the Navan-Drogheda Canal is not under Waterways Ireland, would it be useful to have that type of canal brought under the remit of Waterways Ireland? Would it get more funding and would it be fixed? I will ask Dr. Copeland from BirdWatch Ireland to address some of those questions