Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I want to concentrate on Part 3 of the Bill. The Minister of State will probably not have time to answer me today but could he tell me why there is such passion on the part of the Government, Fianna Fáil and others to get this Bill passed? If the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht is charged with safeguarding our heritage, how could it be so adamant about getting this Bill through when all of the scientific and natural evidence shows that this Bill has little regard for the consequences for wildlife and the various habitats that dominate the country? Like other Deputies, I have attended many briefings from groups like Bird Watch Ireland, the Federation of Irish Beekeepers' Associations and An Taisce, which want to stop these proposed changes. As Deputy Tóibín said, tens of thousands of people have signed petitions to try to stop this Bill.

For me, the most important thing is the experience one has in this country despite the fact that we have lost a lot of habitats and species and given also that there has been a reduction in the number of bees that inhabit the country to the tune of about 40%. There is red listing on about six or seven native species of birds. Despite that, one gets a huge amount of pleasure from walking the hills and laneways, cycling the pathways and using all the new tourist attraction schemes that have opened up like the Wild Atlantic Way and the use of the old railway networks for cycle paths. I was recently on the Saltee Islands. The amount of visitors who go there to see the wildlife, including sea birds, take photographs and bird watch is incredible. We are a very wealthy part of the planet when it comes to attracting tourism in addition to being advantageous to our own population in terms of enjoying what the planet has to offer. I noticed that a new pathway has opened up that ranges from the glens of Antrim down to the Beara Way in west Cork. This is 900 km of walkways that will be something like Ireland's Camino. Can one imagine the kind of beauty and wildlife this walkway will pass through that will be vulnerable if this Bill is passed?

What this Bill does is take the period for cutting, which is now closed from April to August in order to protect vegetation and wildlife during the months of growth and reproduction, and extend it by an extra month at either end. I cannot understand the thinking behind that. During these periods, wildlife is beginning to nest and reproduce and is at its most active. One looks at the level of insect species that inhabit our bogs, uplands and hedgerows. Why would we deprive them of the opportunity of reproducing and existing with a knock-on effect on the food chain and other species? Recent reports indicate that 28% of Ireland's breeding birds are currently in decline and another 31% of habitats are decline. Bird species are in decline include the barn owl, the yellowhammer, the curlew, the golden plover, the red-breasted goose and the meadow pipit. Their names are beautiful never mind the type of creatures they are. This sort of action would deliberately endanger them. Due to the low cover of native woodland, hedges are very important in providing habitats for many birds. Originally, these woodland species had corridors for maintaining the diversity. This makes the maintenance of hedgerows very important because these birds depend on them.

This Bill has been amended somewhat. I understand that there is a described trial period of about two years for hedge cutting limited to hedges by the roadside. However, I would argue vigorously against this because this kind of measure and the logic behind it have complete disregard for what should be the guiding principles of any action of the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht in connection with habitats and wildlife. I do not believe that it would be countenanced anywhere else in Europe. Indeed, many Europeans come to this country precisely to see and experience the wildlife. As Deputy Tóibín said, I cannot see any merit in the argument that it is about road safety. Allowing land users to define road safety means is crazy. It is ludicrous. We would not allow any other group to make that definition. That definition must be the ownership of the Road Safety Authority rather than a bunch of land users. This is not to insult them. However, no group of land users, regardless of what county or area they are in, should be able to define road safety. They should, of course, contribute to road safety policy in an area but they should not be able to make those decisions and carry out those actions.

I think the Minister of State was here when I spoke about the spate of wildfires we saw during May and their devastating consequences for bird habitats, food stores for animals and animals themselves. There is very little effort here by the State. It was clear from the answer I received from the Minister of State that the effort in policing the deliberate setting of wildfires is minuscule. The Minister of State did acknowledge that there has been only one application for controlled wildfire during the period but this indicates that most of them do not bother applying because the policing is so lax and hands-off. Why would someone bother applying for permission to burn when they can get away with doing it illegally? Events this summer has proved this to be so. Regardless of what we say and the laws we pass, the Bill will give a green light to future illegal burning. I do not want to see more people prosecuted and I certainly do not want to hound farmers or hill farmers but there is a lack of a serious effort and enforcement by the State in terms of taking sustainable farming seriously. There is one area where I have seen it work and work beautifully and that is the Burren in County Clare.

There is a huge buy-in from farmers into the idea of sustainable farming and local authorities and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are very much focused on ensuring that sustainable farming works. That sort of attitude to nature and the environment is what we need and it is how we need to approach the farming community, whether in the uplands or the lowlands, and those to whom this Bill wants to give authority to decide on road safety policy.

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