Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take the Deputy's point that the thresholds are high. Across our agricultural policy and under the new CAP strategic plan, the whole thrust of what we are doing is about trying to increase the number of hedgerows on farms and incentivise and recognise their good maintenance and protection.

Therefore, the various schemes, including CAP, the eco-schemes and the environmental schemes, are very much about increasing and improving the quality of our hedgerows as well. Certainly, there is a very strong understanding among farmers themselves, and there has been a change of culture about the value of hedgerows. Going back ten or 20 years, it was about removing them and having bigger fields. Farmers now are very much geared in the other direction and see the value of having them from a stock point of view and also from an environmental point of view. The approach we are taking in CAP of recognising that financially is going to be important too. We need to seek to continue that.

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