Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is interesting to note what is omitted from the answer the Minister of State was given by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It talks about the size threshold for screening and chooses to neglect to mention that up to 500 m can be removed without any application for screening or any application to the Department. I also find interesting the figure of 11,000 km given for the new native species hedgerows. I could raise the issue of imported hawthorne and the issue of fireblight but I will not go into that because time is limited. However, the Minister of State knows that a new hedgerow is not nearly as rich or valuable as an ancient hedgerow in all sorts of ways related to the ecosystem services he referenced. Large tracts of ancient hedgerow are often removed from the landscape and replaced by whips. That is not like for like replacement and simply does not discharge the same function within the landscape.

It is also interesting that the answer did not give a timeline for when this review is to be completed. This public consultation detailed by the Minister of State was conducted in 2023. It is now October 2024. It is not credible that the Department concluded a consultation in 2023 and sat on it for over a year. I do not believe that a review of a public consultation by a legal team takes over 12 months to complete. I am worried we are removing from our landscape something that is incredibly valuable in all sorts of respects. Our screening and the thresholds we have in place simply do not have the strictness to stop that happening. I would like to see the review concluded and what the new screening thresholds will be before the end of the Government’s term.

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