Mary Wallace (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

My Department has conducted public awareness campaigns for the control of noxious weeds in 2006 and in the spring and summer of this year. The campaigns were directed at landowners and users of land — mainly farmers, local authorities and developers. Campaigns consisted of the circulation of posters for display in all Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Teagasc and local authority offices countrywide, as well as in agricultural centres such as co-ops, livestock marts, merchants' premises etc. I issued press releases on the subject of noxious weeds control and placed notices in the national newspapers. These campaigns were in response to the increasing prevalence over recent years of noxious weeds, especially ragwort, on road margins, development sites and on farmed lands.

In addition to the public awareness campaigns, my Department issued notices to offenders to have weeds dealt with. These notices were issued whenever complaints were made by members of the public or as a result of inspections carried out by my Department's field officers. The control of noxious weeds has been made a cross-compliance requirement for single farm payment under good agricultural and environmental condition, which means that failure to comply with this condition may result in a reduction in the single farm payment.

While the Act makes provision for taking prosecutions against offenders, this measure has not been resorted to in recent years. The preference has been to appeal to the better nature of persons responsible for such weed infested areas to face up to their responsibility under the Act and have them controlled. Modern farming has reached a level of specialisation and intensification which makes weed control a fundamental and automatic practice. Therefore, with few exceptions, the problem of noxious weeds on farms has largely diminished. In contrast, ragwort is mainly found along the margins of roadways and railway tracks and in derelict sites.

Officials from my Department have met with the National Roads Authority and I am pleased to note that the authority has embarked on a package of initiatives for the control of noxious weeds. These initiatives consist of commissioning consultancy services to advise on appropriate procedures for dealing with noxious and invasive weed species on national roads. Specifications and method statements for treating such species will be developed through this consultancy service and issued to local authorities, which will form the basis for treatment of noxious weeds on the national roads network as part of the local authorities' routine maintenance programmes in 2008.

Farmers, developers and local authorities whose land contain ragwort should seek advice on control methods from their local Teagasc advisor or consult the Teagasc fact sheet on ragwort at www.teagasc.ie

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