Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On the same topic, the issue of calendar farming in this country is a nonsense. We have had such a wet year this year and now 1 December is fast approaching and we have a cutoff for the final derogation, I am told, for burning of scrub and bushes. Farmers have to maintain their hedgerows. The roads will be closed in if this cannot be done any more. They also have to have sensible burning on the mountains, as do very many gun clubs that manage their stocks. This derogation has to be extended because you cannot go into the land to cut the bushes, and where they are cut farmers cannot go in to remove them. In any case, when we stop the burning of them we will have to mulch them, which involves a bigger carbon footprint with fuel in the machines trying to get them out, mulching them and then moving on to chip. What the Government is proposing is a pure, patent nonsense. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is running riot in this Government and other Government Members are allowing him to do whatever he wants to do. This derogation has to be extended. You cannot go into the land at the moment. As I said, where the bushes are cut they cannot be removed and, anyway, the nonsense of trying to have them all shredded or made into mulch has a bigger impact on the carbon footprint and will have going forward. These nonsensical guidelines are ridiculous.

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