Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am speaking to the Bill. Common sense has gone out the window. We need to be able to cut roadside hedges in the interests of road safety. We have plenty of legislation, including a piece last week concerning fast tractors and another today which suggests that we will be locked up if any of our children go out driving at the age of 17 or 18 without a licensed driver accompanying them. There will be no one in this House because we will all be driving our kids around. It is unworkable and is a symptom of a nanny state. However, despite this we are going to have bushes growing out into the middle of the road where one could hardly fit a bike, never mind a machine or a car. We are talking about trying to attract tourists to these areas. If a person is driving a tractor out of a field, he or she needs a view of 12 foot before it moves to the road. Every roadside hedge should be cut. It is as simple as that. Farmers are allowed to cut the tops of hedges, but the sides should also be cut. As Deputy Danny Healy-Rae will probably elaborate, the birds are not so foolish that they will nest on the roadside near traffic. They will go in and nest inside in the fields, of course.

This is nonsense. It is simply creating more regulation and keeping people in good jobs, with their briefcases and their travelling expenses and everything else. It has gone mad. It is mad for employers as well. There is so much regulation that it has lost meaning. A regulation was signed a few weeks ago by the Minister when all the representative bodies, including the IFA, the ICMSA and the Farm Contractors of Ireland were up in Naas for a meeting to continue the consultation. They were then told it was signed in a month earlier. Fair dues to the Minister, Deputy Ross, who saw that it was a sham consultation and withdrew it. There is too much of this going on. People are running amok. We cannot change the spelling of Soloheadbeg because we have to get permission from the TII. Soon we will not be able to use the leithreas without getting the permission of the TII.

The Minister is a country woman herself, from Monaghan and the border with Cavan. She knows all about the work that the gun clubs do, and how they control habitats and-----

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