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

I take this opportunity to fundamentally disagree with the two previous speakers. I was brought up on a farm and was brought up to love animals and love nature, as I do. No one can ever say otherwise.

I was brought up not to leave animals go hungry and to treat them right at all times.

Some Deputies are complaining that roadside hedges should not be cut because to do so would destroy habitats for nesting birds and so on. I do not believe that birds are so foolish as to make their nests on the side of a busy road or any road. They have the entire countryside. I will not say anything about when hedges inside roadside ditches should be cut. I have no view on that and have nothing against any proposal on it, but I must make it known that there are narrow roads along which hedges are not being cut. People cannot walk or cycle safely. Lives are being put at risk. Roadside hedges should be kept cut all year round for the safety of people using those roads. Look at what the prohibition is doing. It is moving people out past the yellow line on roads that are only 3 m wide. A number of pedestrians and cyclists are being killed each year. This is why. That is the truth. The other side of the issue is that, because bushes and briars are out on the road, drains are getting blocked and water is flowing down and tearing roads.

I have nothing against birds or the like. As I stated at our previous meeting, much more damage is being done to ground-nesting birds by animals and birds of prey, for example, magpies, mink and foxes, yet no word at all is being said by members about that or how we might protect those birds. There is a type of hawk that cleans out every nest. If, like me, members are interested in and serious about nature, including birds, then that is the route we should be taking. We could save many more birds. To claim that our roadside hedges should not be cut is preposterous, though. I cannot agree with it. These roads are a part of the infrastructure people need to access their homes, and it is the last inch that makes the difference when an accident happens and someone is killed or seriously hurt while out walking or cycling on a road. People in cars cannot see as far around bends and accidents occur. Many farmers cannot get up and down their roads now. I know of milk lorries and school buses that are having severe difficulties getting around. That is not fair. Those people are paying their motor and property taxes, most have their own water supplies and they are costing no one anything. They only want a road to their doors. Each and every one of them is entitled to as good a road as people in Dublin 4 have.

Regarding gorse burning, I agree with the extra month that is being added in March. In some cases, the North allows burning up to 15 April. Ours is a small country and we should have the same facility. If gorse is not burned for one or two years, which has happened previously due to bad weather lasting until February, someone somewhere will set it alight anyway. I am not saying that farmers do that. In fact, I am trying to support farmers and to have payments returned to them that were wrongfully taken because their lands were burned by fires that started elsewhere. Neither God nor man could have stopped those fires. These farmers rang the fire brigade and put their own lives in danger, but they have been left without any payment or the greater part of their payments even though they did not start the fires. When there is too much gorse, it cannot be controlled.

I plead with members not to undermine what is being done by the Minister. I support these two aspects of the Bill. I would like my amendment on cutting roadside hedges all year round to be agreed. Deputy Ryan referred to how local authorities had the facility to cut hedges all year round where they deemed them unsafe. I was a member of Kerry County Council for a long time and I highlighted the situation on many roads, but for one reason or another, those dangerous hedges were never cut. The council barely cut a few junctions. It may be doing so again shortly. The dangerous spots on narrow roads are left alone. The council has the facility to do this, but I cannot explain why it does not. It does not happen.