Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not have a specific answer for the Deputy. I think the answer is in terms of insurance but I do not have it in my response here and I do not want to put something on the record of the House that is just a gut feeling and what my understanding is without being 100% sure. Again, to go back to the original response, landowners do have the primary responsibility. The Deputy spoke about trees that are clearly dead. We are going to have a growing problem, pardon the pun, of ash dieback being present in individual ash trees on the roadside. My Department has responsibility for ash plantations, but the majority of individual ash trees in hedgerows will die by ash dieback and will be impacted in this way around the country. Again, this is a major challenge for farmers and landowners.

To return to the point, the local authorities definitely have a role here. I agree with the concerns the Deputy raised about when the responsibility for something lies in one area, it can end up being the case that it becomes everybody's responsibility and no one's. We cannot let this happen. This is something that will be a growing issue and will need to be worked on interdepartmentally. Ultimately, however, the primary responsibility remains with the landowner and this will not change. From this perspective, I imagine, landowners who talk to an insurance broker will get a clear direction very quickly if they have trees that are showing signs of decay, are unstable, have a lean, have lost boughs and water ingress may have weakened their cores. This is a situation where if the farmer or landowner did not act upon it, he or she could be liable, I would imagine. I am trying not to speculate here because it is not my role to do that here.

The Deputy has highlighted a significant issue. The local authorities have a key role to play. I know of instances where area engineers from the roads sections of county councils have approached landowners and said they were not happy about the look of some of the trees and asked that private consultants be engaged to check them and decide with a contractor to remove them where they are hazardous.

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