Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This Bill appears to be about allowing the cutting of hedges in the month of August, an extension of a month, on a trial basis and the burning of scrub in the month of March, also on a trial basis. That is what it amounts to, after all the talk and hullabaloo in the Seanad. I can assure the Minister that we will table amendments to the Bill.

Roads must be kept safe at all times for the people who travel on them. The Minister and the Minister of State have a role to play in this regard. Roadside hedges must be kept cut all year round for the safety of the people who use the roads. I have been travelling to Dublin for a year and a half. The roadside of the motorway is cut day after day. It is shaved. A rabbit would not get enough to eat on the side of the motorway given the amount of cutting that takes place from where the motorway starts until it reaches the Red Cow. With regard to all the talk about birds, I do not object to birds, bees or any other wildlife. However, there is a place for them. The people who support the wildlife cannot put other people's lives at risk for the sake of birds. The birds are not so foolish as to make their nests on the side of the road only to have a lorry come along and blow their feathers off so they will be left standing naked on the side of the road. That is a ridiculous notion. The country is wide enough for the birds to nest. I am all in favour of them nesting but not on the roadside. We must keep the roadsides safe for the people who are travelling on the roads.

Consider the storm that occurred a few weeks ago, when trees and branches fell down on people. That must be stopped. A branch the length of one's arm, from the elbow to the top of the finger, could kill somebody if it fell off and hit the windscreen of a woman taking her children to school. There is no need for that. In France there is no tree within falling distance of any road. We should do the same. Our people are as valuable and important as the people of France. Some school buses cannot get up and down country roads. Farmers' vehicles, including lorries carrying hay and bales, are having their windows and mirrors broken. Deputy Mattie McGrath said that a mirror costs €200. Mirrors for some school buses and other vehicles can cost €900 to €1,300. Consider what could happen if the bus hits a branch sideways and it comes in through the side window. Two, three or four children in the school bus could be killed. What is happening is ridiculous.

On top of that, leaves are falling into drains and blocking them. If there is any rain it leads to ponds on the side of the road because the water has nowhere to go. The drains are blocked by the leaves. Take the example of people walking. People are told to walk and exercise because they are told they are all obese. I probably am one of them as well. We are told to walk but we cannot walk our country roads with the briars. One's eyes would be picked out. People are also tripping and falling. In addition, they cannot ride their bicycles safely due to the hedges and briars growing out across the road. People have never paid more in taxes, be it property tax, PRSI, USC or other charges, yet they see no services for them. If they saw the hedges being cut it would mean a great deal to them. Motorists cannot see around turns. The country roads in places such as Gneeveguilla, Scartaglen, Rathmore and Kilcummin are all blocked by bushes and briars and it is only with the height of ingenuity that people can travel in these places at all. There is a place in Shrone, Cathair Crobh Dearg, where the school bus driver is giving out that he cannot travel to collect the children anymore. That situation is replicated in other areas.

During the storm a couple of weeks ago roads were blocked and power lines were down. The Minister for transport and power has a responsibility for the power as well. The closures and outages for days cost companies millions of euro. That was due to trees putting the power out. People with disabilities such as amputees could not use their hospital-type beds because they had no electricity. They also could not operate their oxygen apparatus. Those people were severely impacted because the trees along the power lines and along our roads are not being cut. It is a sad reflection on Members of this House if we allow this to continue and we cannot ensure that people can travel the roads safely.

Consider the Sheen Falls in Kenmare. Due to the wind blowing in from the bay and knocking the trees down - a tree was being knocked down almost every day when there was any amount of wind - the people there took it upon themselves to cut some down. Lo and behold, some objectors arrived and made them apply for licences. Then there was a big investigation into why they were cutting the trees down. They were cutting the trees down for the safety of the people travelling on the road but some do-gooder came along and objected.

Fortunes are being spent on marketing and selling my county and our country. However, that is all spoilt by the hedges being overgrown throughout the summer. Places could sell themselves if the hedges were cut. People will recall that 50 or 60 years ago there were section men along every road. The local authorities at the time knew the value of cutting their hedges. They had to cut them with scythes and slashers. It was hard manual work, but it was done. We have all kinds of saws and hedge cutters now, but no roadsides are cut. It is all left to stand and grow out across the road. There are now tunnels on many roads where one cannot see the daylight. The Minister knows that what I am saying is right. That must be addressed if we are to claim to do anything in this term of the Dáil.

The Bill also refers to burning scrub and provides that farmers will be allowed to burn scrub in the month of March on a trial basis. At the same time, the farmers are being penalised if their lands are overgrown. These lands cannot be cut with a forage harvester, lawn mower or any type of mechanical equipment. The only way to put the place in order and keep it that way for the Department's officials who come out to check the land is to burn it off.

10 o’clock

If one goes back a few years, Coillte used to help farmers to burn off their places but now farmers are stopped from doing that. It is supposed to be a great concession on a trial basis, I believe it is for two years, that they may burn in the month of March. It is a help but it must be understood that this has to be allowed to continue to allow farmers to do it when the weather is right for it. As we have said in the Chamber several times, the farmer knows best how to mind and care for his land without any interference or any advice from do-gooders around the country who do not own even a patch of land but who try to exert control. It is as though farmers do not own their lands at all now because they are told what to do and what they cannot do. It is very sad because whether it was handed down to them or whether they had to buy it at exorbitant cost, and many of them had to do that, farmers are the best custodians of the land and they should be left at it. They never wronged the countryside, and those who are there now value their properties as much as those who came before them. All they want to do is hand it down in the same way they got it from their parents or forefathers.

See this speech in context