Josepha Madigan (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 40 of the Wildlife Act, as amended, prohibits the cutting, grubbing, burning or destruction of vegetation, with certain strict exemptions, from 1 March to 31 August.

Following a review of section 40, which included consideration of submissions from interested parties, proposals were announced in December 2015 to introduce legislation to allow for managed hedge cutting and burning at certain times within the existing closed period on a pilot two-year basis. The relevant legislation is included in the Heritage Bill 2016, which was published in January 2016.

The Bill has completed its passage through Seanad Éireann and completed Committee Stage, when Deputy Ryan contributed, in Dáil Éireann last month. In the meantime, the existing provisions relating to section 40 of the Wildlife Act remain in force.

The provision on burning in the Bill will not allow all landowners to burn vegetation on any day during the month of March. It provides that the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht may make regulations to allow burning in certain areas of the country, for example in a county or counties or parts of a county, at specified periods in the month of March. It does not , therefore, allow for widespread burning of vegetation, which in turn relates to the Deputy's concerns around wildlife.

The regulations will permit controlled burning only and only in years where the winter rainfall is higher than average. The regulations will refer to the requirements for consent on any Natura-designated sites and refer also to other relevant legislation on burning of lands. In addition to regulations, advice and guidelines will be issued to ensure that best practice will be followed in respect of burning.

I am fully aware that hedgerows are a very important wildlife habitat, providing food, shelter, corridors of movement, nest and hibernation sites. It is my intention that the change in timing of cutting set out in section 7 of the Heritage Bill would not interfere with this.

Ireland has some 300,000 km of hedgerow mainly surrounding fields and properties across the country and only roadside hedges are subject to the provisions of the Heritage Bill, which is a fraction of the entirety of the total hedgerow resource in this country.

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