Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The reality is that the amount of hedge-cutting that is likely to take place in August is actually quite limited. This section limits it to roadside hedge-cutting but many fields do not come to the roadside. Any fields that do come to the roadside also have three sides of hedges that do not come to the roadside. In fact, on the narrow roads and especially on the boreens into houses, the tourists constantly complain about visibility, particularly those tourists who would normally drive on the opposite side of the roads. There are constant complaints about lack of visibility on rural roads over the summer and specifically in August when we get the most visitors. It is a problem. I do not see wholesale cutting of roadside hedges but to be able to do it without having to go through a very convoluted process of getting permission from the local authority in August is a proportionate proposal.

There is a need to look at what is causing the decrease in our bird population. It is a lot more complicated than the possibility of being able to cut a few hedges in August. There is another problem when verges overgrow with grass that technically one can cut anyway. The local authorities are highly adverse to doing even that, although we get major problems because of it.

I happened to be travelling on very narrow roads on Friday in a certain part of the world that does not have a lot of hedgerows but with very high walls along the narrow roads. I said to the driver to keep 1 m out from the cyclists, but if he had done so we would have been in the ditch on the other side of the road or would have knocked against the walls. It must be recognised that a lot of the boreens of rural Ireland - not the regional roads - are exceptionally narrow.

There are many heavy goods vehicles, milk trucks, timber trucks and every kind of vehicle going down very small roads. I have often travelled from Mallow to west Cork taking the byways and they are very twisted with a lot of hedges. It is fine until one comes around a corner and is up against a 40 ft articulated truck, whose driver might have seen one but one will not have seen the truck. If the car is driven by a tourist it is an absolutely extraordinary situation. I believe that what is proposed in the amendment is very proportionate and limited. It is much more limited than original proposals for the wholesale cutting of hedges by professional contractors in August. I believe this proposal is proportionate.