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

In July, Johnny Healy-Rae, Maura Healy-Rae and I secured a commitment that the council would start cutting the dangerous places at the start of August. The very minute the Minister issued her orders, the process stopped completely. No council executive will put his or her job on the line or break the law for me or any other politician. That is what is happening, as it has done over the years. Councils will not even write letters to landowners until 1 September and will not even cut the hedges on junctions this year. Anyone who cut hedges of his or her own accord was reported and enforcement officers were sent to stop them doing so. We had hoped that because the law was in place from 1 August, we would be allowed to cut them from that date but the Minister prevented us from doing so. I understand she is a Dublin Deputy but at the time, I called for her to be fired. That is how strongly I feel. I represent the people who have contacted me day in and day out. I recognise the calls from the local authority members asking us to do something in order that the roadside hedges could be cut.

While it is true the legislation provides that dangerous places can be cut, one has to go through such a rigmarole and an accident has to happen before it will be cut. That is what has happened for years and it is why the legislation was under debate in the previous Dáil as it is in the current one. Finally, even though the change was scheduled for August, the Minister deprived us of it with one stroke of a pen. Now she has suggested they will be not cut next August. If that is her attitude, I hope she is not Minister next July. She is wronging the people of rural Ireland. She indicated there is less scrub on farmland but what she does not realise about farmland is that people were fined and payments were cut because of scrub. Some bureaucrat said the scrub must be cut and that payments will be lost if it is not. Now the Minister has stated it is because people want to leave the scrub on the roadside. She has no meas for the people but she has it for biodiversity and insects, including bees. My priority is the people. I have nothing against bees, birds or anything else but there is plenty of room for them in ditches. I do not care what happens in the single line of a ditch or how many hedges there are. I planted a hedge on my farm, and when I removed a ditch and realised that it was the wrong step to take, I put it back immediately. The roadside, however, is different and we must keep it clear for the safety of the people.

Too many people are dying. If they tipped home, they would not be allowed to have one drink because the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, was voted for, along with his lunacy of a Bill. The Minister, Deputy Ross, stated the Bill's purpose was to save lives. He did not save one with that racket, however. He caused people to tip home on ice and so on but now the Minister, Deputy Madigan, wants to hurt the people further by not allowing them to travel on the roads. She wants to keep them off the roads altogether and says they must walk and get out of their cars. They cannot even walk on the roads, however, because their eyes would be picked up by briars. What is going on is terrible, as is what the Government is doing to rural Ireland. The more quickly the Government is blown out, the better. Every day I see one thing after another. To stop the cutting of hedges, after we in the House had voted against such action, is criminal. It is time for the Government to go and it should be gone. The people are waiting for it around the corner and it deserves what it will get.