Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As someone who comes from a farming background and is still farming, I wish to make a few points about issues that were mentioned earlier. I have a hedgecutter with flails and anyone who has driven one would know that it does not throw the cuttings into the hedge. It puts the cuttings behind the vehicle and a person has to clean up the cuttings. That clarification needs to be made.

Regarding the question as to whether these contractors and farmers are going out to do this work willy-nilly and the safety procedures they will follow, the law of the land applies to a contractor or a farmer. The safety procedures they have to follow are the same for a council worker, a contractor or a farmer. They have to put up the signs, set up properly and must have insurance cover. The reason they have that is because we saw what the national parks were put through a year ago. I read about it in the newspapers and saw it on television. They put amenities in place for people in certain counties and then had to spend hundreds of thousands of euro defending themselves in the courts because they were sued. The same applies to a farmer or a contractor. The insurance premium for a contractor is high, but that is the reality we face.

I said last night and I repeat now, and I ask the Minister to listen, that under GLAS farmers have to adhere to stringent measures, one of which applies to placing sand down for bees. I explained about this last night. I do not have 40 letters after my name but I listen to what farmers are saying. One would learn more from them in an hour than many a person with 40 letters after their name. Farmers tell me day in, day out that the sand has worked, everything is lovely but, unfortunately, some wildlife are eating other species of wildlife. That is something we may have to address. I do not know how we will solve that but the principle of what is being done by farmers to improve the environment, through the GLAS scheme, is working. That must be recognised.

The issue of scrub vegetation needs to be addressed. I am sure Deputies Boyd Barrett and Eamon Ryan would agree with me on that. Heather grows in Deputy Ó Cuív's area and in mountain areas but it does not grow to be a tree, and neither do briars. However, under the single farm payment scheme a farmer must show that his land is being grazed. The hills were overstocked at one time. The experts then came in and said the stock had to be cut down to X amount. Sheep will not decide to eat a bit of grass to make sure the agricultural inspector thinks everything is lovely. They will go to the sweetest pick, as we call it down the country, and a piece of the land may not be grazed. Unfortunately, those farmers' grants will be cut. Under the new Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, a budget should be given to the national parks to assist farmers who have designated land because they are fearful when someone calls to their property with respect to the grazing section of their land. This issue has not been solved. Something needs to be done about it, and I would be fully in favour of that.

It was said earlier that from August onwards, farmers will be driving up and down the roads doing this work.

That is not their aim; there is plenty to do other than doing that. There are roads in rural parts of Ireland that are about 2 m or 2.5 m wide. This minute people would probably only get a bicycle down them. There are cars being scratched on either side. These are the problems that have to be addressed. Some of it is ordinary grass, and there are branches or the hedge growing out. It is not that they are going to demolish every hedge; that is not their business. The one thing they need to be able to do is go up and down the road as best as possible. I will finish at that because I am not going to hog the time.

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