Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think it is. We do not have the luxury of footpaths or public lights. What we have is the luxury of a road if we are lucky. Sometimes we do not even have that luxury. This Bill is about two things: health and safety to make sure that young people, old people and people of my generation can walk and drive safely on roads, and, when it comes to the agricultural community and the people who set the winter barley or want to reseed, that they have the possibility of cutting back the hedges so they can make sure that the land and the fields can be properly promoted. We are not talking about cutting every hedge in every field. We are talking about, when it comes to the 12-year cycle of reseeding a field in the month of August, having the possibility of cutting back that hedge so that it can be ploughed and the grass seed can be planted. It is a practical element of farming and a practical issue that must be considered. This Bill is what it is. It is a very positive step forward, and there is a two-year pilot period so we have an open door and an issue to come back to, and we should consider that issue. I have been canvassed literally on every section of the Bill, but my view is that it is a good Bill and we should support it.