Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If we take the Minister of State's argument to the logical conclusion, one would just put a full stop after "National Biodiversity Plan" because he is essentially arguing that biodiversity in accordance with the EU biodiversity strategy and the national biodiversity plan covers it. What he is not explaining is why "trees" and "groups of trees" are explicitly named while everything else is lumped into the more generic "features of ecological significance". I do not understand why trees get a mention there and hedgerows do not. One could argue we could get rid of "trees" and "groups of trees" because they are all "features of ecological significance", or equally one could argue they are all covered by the biodiversity strategy and the national biodiversity plan. The argument does not make any sense to me.