Mr. Val Swan:

Until I retired five years ago, I worked as the deputy regional manager in the north eastern region of the National Parks and Wildlife Service. My duties included the implementation and enforcement of the Wildlife Acts and the birds and habitats directives in counties Kildare, Laois, Offaly, Dublin, Meath and Louth. I was familiar with section 40 of the Wildlife Act and prepared many case files for prosecutions. They were primarily hedge cutting cases detected by conservation rangers. Hedge cutting cases were not pursued if it was deemed that public health and safety issues were involved. In most cases, the roadside hedges were being cut solely for aesthetic purposes.

I recently heard the then Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Heather Humphries, state on a radio interview that the proposed change would only involve one year's growth. This would offer little protection to nesting birds as most bird nests are found within or just inside one year's growth. The introduction of section 8 is worrying from an enforcement point of view as it gives discretion to landowners or occupiers to decide on public health and safety issues in respect of road hedges in the bird nesting season. It does not provide for any ministerial oversight and there is no obligation on landowners to justify their actions, as is the case with local authority roads engineers.

The proposal to allow the burning of vegetation in the month March is anathema to all conservationists because leverets will be born in March, mallards will have young, grouse will have established breeding territories, hen harriers will be returning to their upland breeding territories and curlews will be returning to their breeding territories. Burning more land vegetation can have catastrophic consequences for these species. With hedge cutting in the month of August, this measure will not be compatible with our obligations under Article 5 of the birds directive. It is not possible to make regulations allowing the burning of vegetation in the month of March and cutting hedges in the month of August which could ensure protection of fauna or flora, particularly birds in their period of breeding and rearing.