Ms Mary Cahill:

I am a senior executive engineer and currently hold the role of climate action officer for Wicklow County Council. I am accompanied here today by Mr. Jim Callery, environmental awareness officer in Wicklow County Council. We work together as part of the climate action team in Wicklow to work towards the targets set out in the climate action plan 2021 and bring awareness to all staff, the public via community groups, schools and so on, of the actions that can be taken to meet those targets. Following the formation of the climate and biodiversity action strategic policy committee, SPC, in Wicklow in June 2019, one of the issues raised by the members was the use of glyphosate, or weedkiller, by Wicklow County Council staff in public areas. The members asked the climate action team to look at the current practices and develop a policy that would lead to the reduction and possible elimination of the application of glyphosate by council staff. It was discovered that while staff were trained and certified in its application, there was little to no control of where or why the glyphosate was applied and no records were maintained of where or how much was being applied. In developing the policy we looked at our commitments at an operational level as a partner of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2021-2025, or AIPP, and, in particular, our specific obligations under objective 2 of that plan. That objective reads:

Making public land pollinator friendly

By working together with Councils, Transport Authorities, Local Communities and others, we want to better coexist with biodiversity and help return food and shelter for pollinators to our island.

There are two targets in that objective that we want to work towards. The first one is to increase the area of council land managed in a pollinator-friendly way and the second is to make transport corridors more pollinator friendly.

To meet these two targets of the all-Ireland pollinator plan, we needed to reduce the application of glyphosate. How did we go about trying to do that? We set out a hierarchy of decisions in the policy, favouring the elimination or the avoidance of the use of glyphosate. The first option at the top of the decision tree is to do nothing, to retain what we have and leave it as is, and to identify and protect existing semi natural areas which provide food and shelter for pollinators and ensure these areas are retained and enhanced through appropriate management wherever possible. An example of this is working with the municipal districts to expand the selected areas that are pollinator-friendly and to manage the six-weekly rotation of mow and lift. The second option on the decision tree is to manage weeds through mechanical methods, including the use of hand tools or strimming equipment, having regard with due care to the timing of works being carried out to benefit pollinators and wildlife. As an example, in the summer of 2021, the Wicklow municipal district hired a contractor with a sweeper with a front-loaded wire brush on the tractor and this managed to remove all the weeds along the curbside of the Wicklow town relief road in two days. The next option on the decision tree is to use alternatives such as chemical and glyphosate-free products to control the weeds and clean hard surfaces. Wicklow County Council purchased a Foamstream machine for plant control. This machine mixes natural oils with hot water, and when it is sprayed, it provides an environmentally friendly alternative to glyphosate. The final option is to use glyphosate or similar products to control, in one case, invasive species where other techniques are not an option and where the threat of invasive species to biodiversity or critical infrastructure warrants their use.

The policy has introduced the requirement for a business case to be completed by a municipal district or indeed anyone in the council, in advance of the application of glyphosate. I have included that business case in appendix A of my statement. This documents why options one to three on our hierarchy of decisions cannot be implemented and why glyphosate must be applied. If there is no suitable alternative and glyphosate is applied, then the application record form shown in appendix B, must be completed and this information will be stored in a central location. We are working with our IT section to develop an app to capture these data and allow for the locations to be mapped and to be available to the public.

Other actions in the policy are to provide training to all staff involved in the application of glyphosate to raise awareness of its effects on pollinator-friendly plants and watercourses, to register staff involved in the application of glyphosate with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and obtain a professional user number, ensure widespread compliance among staff in the completion of the business case for the application of glyphosate and the glyphosate application record form, investigate further alternatives to the application of glyphosate for weed control and ensure lessons learned are shared between all municipal districts and other local authorities, and to raise awareness among community groups, schools and businesses on the effects of the application of glyphosate and available alternatives.

I want to give a list of issues that have arisen while we were developing the protocol or the policy and that we are still dealing with. There is no suitable training available on the market that encompasses all of the needs within the policy. There is a three-day course for professional users on the application of glyphosate. However, a course is required that includes awareness of the implications of applying glyphosate, the alternatives available, and the health and safety surrounding storage and application. We are looking at developing an awareness course for all outdoor staff and providing the training for certification to a small number of staff.

The appointment of an external contractor to carry out mechanical weed removal raised some industrial relations issues within the municipal district. Equipment like the Foamstream is very expensive, and while Wicklow County Council could afford one machine, this is not sufficient to cover the whole county, and the municipal districts are using it on rotation. While alternatives to glyphosate curb the growth of weeds, they do not kill the weeds to the extent that glyphosate does. This results in municipal district staff having to retreat more often during the growing season, leading to additional resources being required. Finally, an awareness campaign is required to educate the public on the need to leave areas looking unkempt.

Wicklow County Council has received great support for and interest in this policy and it is on the agenda of the plenary for 4 July 2022 when it will be expected to be adopted. I thank the Cathaoirleach.