Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The question was raised earlier as to whether this is heritage legislation at all. Many aspects of the Bill are not sufficiently cognisant of what many environmental NGOs and farming community voices have said, namely that there is no need for sections 7 and 8. There is no huge cry or lobbying effort calling on the Minister to look at this area and introduce these provisions. As such, I hope the Minister will be open to some of the suggestions we put forward this morning. I will consider two aspects of the Bill, namely Waterways Ireland and canals and sections 7 and 8 on burning and cutting of hedgerows and moors.

Every organisation needs legislation to facilitate its activities and to ensure compliance with the law, in this case on the use of public waterways. However, the Bill proposes to change fundamentally the way people use our canals and waterways. I have looked at the system Waterways Ireland currently operates. On the Barrow navigation, the Grand Canal and the Royal Canal, five days' mooring is available under the combined mooring and passage permit, but opportunities also exist to take up to 12 months' mooring vacancies on serviced and unserviced moorings. Waterways Ireland operates an extended mooring permit at a cost of €152 which allows 12 months' mooring at a single designated location and this is available at more than 60 locations on the Grand Canal, Barrow navigation and Royal Canal. Most extended moorings are on soft banks without services but there are also serviced moorings available on the Barrow navigation, Grand Canal and Royal Canal. After 12 months, however, one must reapply for a permit. There is no permanent permit. Nevertheless, a lot of people live on barges because it is a way of life, cheaper and services can be accessed on the docks.

I have been approached by a number of boat and barge residents from the Grand Canal who are hugely concerned about the by-laws the Bill proposes to introduce and the tremendous powers it proposes to grant to authorised officers to challenge people in these areas. I have referred to the €152 payment, but there is also a €126 payment to moor in these areas. Residents have been told they could have to pay up to €5,000 for a permanent permit on the Grand Canal. One of the people who approached me is a pensioner on the State contributory pension. If he were in a local authority house or apartment, he would be paying €30 per week in rent, or approximately €1,500 a year. If the Bill is enacted, there will be lots of regulations on follow-up, authorised officers' powers, by-laws, enforcement, fixed payment notices, search warrants, service of directions, and prosecutions, but I see nothing about how much the long-term permits people are hoping to get will cost. We need to step back and discuss with the people the moorings and Waterways Ireland how this should be progressed, just as people have said we should proceed in relation to hedgerows, uplands and burning and cutting. This is a way of life for these people just as buying a house and moving into a home is for someone like me. Everything around the mooring is part of their way of life. The Minister should be very careful because these people feel they are being evicted from their permanent residences, albeit they have to renew their permits annually at the moment. I ask the Minister to take cognisance of that and to avoid making it prohibitive for these people to stay on the canals. I ask her to assist these people and to consider grants to allow them to upgrade their boats and ensure they are canal or water worthy. She must work with them. I will put down amendments in this regard on Committee Stage.

Sections 7 and 8 are the two main sections people have raised. Under section 40 of the Wildlife Acts, vegetation on uncultivated land and any vegetation growing in any hedge or ditch is protected during the period March to August, inclusive. The Bill proposes to change section 40 to permit under regulation the cutting of vegetation grown in any hedge or ditch on the roadside during August and the burning of vegetation in March. It also exempts landowners from section 40 in any cutting undertaken pursuant to section 70 of the Roads Act. A coalition of environmental NGOs, which the Minister knows well, has gathered 30,000 signatures from citizens who are concerned that the proposed changes will have a negative impact on already threatened wildlife. In general, there is no scientific basis for the proposed changes, which is very important and must be taken on board. The proposed changes impact on Ireland's commitment under European regulations but have not been formally discussed with the EU as far as I am aware. They also place additional pressure on already threatened species. There has been no assessment by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport of the implications of the Bill for road safety. The two year pilot period covers all 26 counties but no methodology for the study has been provided. No baseline data have been recorded despite the lapse of two years during the passage of the Bill through the Oireachtas. The National Parks and Wildlife Service is already underresourced but no additional resources have been promised.

I turn to section 7(1). Burning in March destroys occupied nesting territories. Even if the birds have not yet laid eggs, breeding may not take place that year if an established area is destroyed in this way. Burning has limited value as a land management tool and other management strategies, including grazing, should be deployed to improve upland farm areas. Agricultural policy should reflect the value of scrub and upland habitats for biodiversity, stock management and shelter and not seek to have such areas made ineligible for agricultural payments. Cutting hedgerows from March to August impinges on the biodiversity value of hedgerows. The changes proposed in section 8 are for the convenience of land managers and are not aimed at strengthening wildlife protection. Section 8 will result in the reduced oversight of biodiversity protections. There are provisions in existing legislation to address road safety. The proposed changes permit, but do not compel, landowners to cut hedges. The main road safety issue relates to landowners who fail to comply with their obligations under section 70 of the Roads Act but this is not addressed.

The Bill is internally inconsistent. The purpose of section 7(2) to permit regulated cutting in August is nullified by section 8 which permits year-round, self-definition of road safety issues by landowners with no regulation or ministerial oversight. That leaves section 40 of the Wildlife Act unenforceable having regard to hedge cutting and hedge removal. Hedge cutting is currently restricted during the period 1 March to 31 August annually. The National Roads Authority can cut during the closed period for health and safety purposes and it is the authority that defines road safety issues during that closed period.

The roads authority is answerable to the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht for work undertaken during the closed period for health and safety purposes. There is a discrepancy between the provision of section 70(2) of the Roads Act and section 40 as regards landowners as there is currently some legal uncertainty as to whether a landowner who is served a section 70 notice by the roads authority during the closed period is exempt from the Wildlife Act. In reality, the NPWS is very unlikely to consider a prosecution where a section 70 notice exists.

As regards section 7(2) of the Bill, landowners can cut roadside hedges under regulation by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht during August for a two year period renewable by Oireachtas resolution. Roadside cutting is not limited to safety issues by primary legislation. No draft regulations have been published and road safety issues during August would be self-defined by landowners.

Section 8 exempts landowners from section 40 of the Wildlife Act for road safety purposes. Road safety issues year round are now self-defined by landowners who are subject to no regulation and have no answerability to the Minister. That is not consistent with the intention of section 7(2) and effectively leaves section 40 of the Wildlife Act unenforceable as regards hedge cutting. The section amends the principal Act and is not subject to the two year pilot period. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht does not have authority in matters of health and safety in respect of roads. There are no Government guidelines for landowners on assessing and dealing with road safety issues caused by structures on their land.

As regards burning and environmental impacts, annual wildfires have severely damaged upland habitats across Ireland such that the National Parks and Wildlife Service has assessed them all as being in bad condition. The decline in hill farming has coincided with a decline in wildlife and habitats. Many upland bird species are locally extinct and listed on BirdWatch Ireland's red list of birds of high conservation concern. Such birds include the red grouse, nightjar, twite, ring ouzel and golden eagle. A study carried out by the University of Leeds in the UK found that controlled burning resulted in the loss of biodiversity, water pollution, soil degradation and increased carbon emissions. Effects from annual wildfires are likely to be much worse. Controlled burning does not happen in Ireland. A freedom of information request by the Irish Wildlife Trust, IWT, found that controlled burning happened in one location in 2016. Data gathered by the IWT in 2015 and 2016 show that approximately 50% of all wildfires take place in areas designated for nature conservation. Failure to protect these areas risks sanction from the European Commission. Existing enforcement measures are not effective in preventing wildfires. A freedom of information request by the IWT found that in 2016 no farmer was penalised under cross-compliance rules despite extensive and widespread wildfires that year. It is to be hoped that no farmer consciously started a wildfire.

Our hills are valuable for more than just the food produced therefrom. They are also important landscapes for recreation and amenity, protect water quality, help prevent flooding, store carbon and are home to unique wildlife. Rewarding farmers for all of these services and not only one as is currently the case holds the key to protecting our environment and the livelihoods which depend upon it. Restoring peatlands will help us reach our commitments under climate change agreements, restore habitats for endangered wildlife and protect water for downstream use, including alleviating floods. A new uplands strategy which brings together complementary interests and which can propose tailored solutions to suit each area is urgently needed.

Those points were submitted by BirdWatch Ireland and Neil Foulkes of the Hedge Laying Association of Ireland and I wanted to read them into the Dáil record. It is important that we put that on the agenda because I do not believe that farmers are anti-biodiversity. They want to be part of that diversity and be able to support it in every way they can.

As regards climate change, all Members know that bees are integral to our climate. If the bees go, we go. There have already been problems in Ireland in respect of a loss of bees of different varieties. There have been recent attempts to reintroduce bees into the environment. I wish to read into the record a letter from Jane Sellers and Loretta Neary of Dunlavin in County Wicklow, who are very involved in beekeeping:

When you deliberate on the Heritage Bill please be aware of the following facts: honey bees and other pollinators are entirely reliant on flowers for their food, which is pollen and nectar; in many parts of Ireland hedgerows and scrub are the only sources of flowering plants and habitat; to cut, grub or burn flowering vegetation at any time of the year is to deprive pollinating insects of food; to cut hedges or verges in August is to destroy a food source vital to bees as they gather pollen and nectar to store for winter; to grub and burn flowering vegetation in March is to destroy a food source vital to bees as they emerge from winter; important hedgerow and verge/ditch species that flower in August include blackberry, rosebay, ivy, meadowsweet, gorse. Important species of scrub that flower in March include gorse, willow, hazel and alder.

Arguments are mounting that we have to take a step back from the Bill as it stands and revaluate it along with those interested groups and those affected by the Bill such as NGOs, the IFA, the Road Safety Authority and the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. As a nation, we must ensure our roads are safe and that our farming community can work with biodiversity and make a living out of it and also ensure our biodiversity is kept up to scratch. Question marks have been raised about EU payments and the European habitat and birds directive and I would be interested to find out more about that. There would be a case taken to the European court if the Bill is passed in its current form. I would like there to be a step back from this. I will be opposing the Bill and calling for a vote on its progression to the next Stage. We should work together to ensure that any changes to canals and our heritage have to be taken on board by everybody and ensure no one is prohibited from pursuing their way of life.

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