Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In tillage areas where there is re-seeding this is a necessary exercise. There are specific difficulties in certain types of areas where small farming is carried out as well as wetland areas.

It is important to emphasise another point that has been getting insufficient emphasis: this is a pilot scheme. In other words, there is a remedy if any operational difficulties arise in terms of misuse. I made the point at the outset that I am perfectly confident about our farmers in this area. Any misuse, any operational difficulties or any supervisory difficulties that arise during the pilot programme will of course be corrected in future statutory instruments. Senator Mulherin made an important point in respect of the involvement of the National Parks and Wildlife Service from the outset.

I wish to turn to road safety. Anyone who lives in rural Ireland who understands it. I have great respect for Deputy Marie-Louise O'Donnell, who lives there on a day-to-day basis. People who live there know how to negotiate their way around those areas, but there is a real safety issue here.That issue relates to hedgerows. I refer to the Oireachtas Library digest which was circulated prior to the Bill's introduction. The digest quotes the Road Safety Authority's submission during the consultation period. The reasons I insist on recording it will become apparent. It states:

From a road safety perspective, we would support the introduction of any measures that would ensure that hedges are kept in such a way as they ensure the visibility of road signage to road users all year round, do not cause damage to mirrors fitted to vehicles, especially large vehicles such as HGVs, buses and agricultural tractors.

In that regard, my good colleague, Councillor Peter McVitty, who is known to many in the House and who is a leading member of the Irish Haulage Association, has been in contact with me regularly to say that this is a difficulty for his drivers and a health and safety issue for them on a daily basis. The Road Safety Authority submission continues:

The issue of overgrown hedges obscuring the visibility of drivers, road signs, and forcing vulnerable road users (pedestrians and cyclists) onto the open road is [one] that greatly exercises the public and generates much correspondence to the Road Safety Authority on the subject.

This is a road safety issue and it is a concern of the Road Safety Authority. As such, it is right that it is addressed in those terms. It is not just an issue for tillage farmers who are seeding and those who have particularly difficult terrain with which to deal and demanding climactic conditions in which to operate. It is an issue for ordinary people traversing the roads and, in particular, for tourists who have difficulty with the fact that we drive on the left-hand side of the road here. It is very much a road safety issue.

The clarifications provided by the Minister should alleviate the fears of those who have genuine concerns about this matter. I welcome the fact that trimming will proceed, that it will be in respect of one year's growth, that it will be controlled and that it will be subject to a statutory instrument and ministerial order. Also, it is a pilot programme and, as such, will be constantly under review. Taking all of that together with the rightful concerns around road safety and farming issues relating to tillage, reseeding and the variations in climate and terrain nationally, the Bill is nicely nuanced and modulated. I make no apologies for finally reverting to the point------