Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I was also told by farmers that the issue was being clouded in matters of road safety. We discussed it at length on the last occasion. Matters of road safety and the Road Traffic Act can be dealt with outside this issue. It is not a road safety issue for farmers. The Minister is suggesting roadside hedges be cut and that this is what many farmers disagree with. A farmer said to me last night that hedges inside a field were cut, even though that did not have to happen. Farmers have told me that it is not a big issue in the month of August. There is an issue not only for the various environmental wildlife groups but also farmers. I speak on behalf of the wildlife groups and farmers with whom I have consulted. There is ample provision made for road safety.

I turn to the Fianna Fáil Party. One of its Deputies has been replying to some of the letters sent by the different federations and using the Road Safety Act as the reason we have to cut and grub. Senator David Norris referred to grubbing on the last occasion and said this was a grubby Bill. It is certainly grubby. Grubbing means taking the roots and branches and pulling out every component of the ecosystem. As Senator Kevin Humphreys said, it deprives the people of Ireland of a beautiful heritage and wildlife of roosting. It affects mammals and different wildlife species. As a farmer's daughter, I am fundamentally opposed to it. My father has passed away, but the land is still there. One of the reasons I am here is that he used to bring me out onto the land, on which there were hedgerows. He had a dairy herd. What the Minister is prescribing is cutting in the month of August, lock, stock and barrel. I fundamentally disagree with him.

I also fundamentally disagree with the proposal to carry out a survey. It would be absolutely unscientific. It would be a joke and totally flawed. I suggest carrying out an environmental impact assessment of the hedgerow system and wildlife corridors throughout the Twenty-six Counties. In that way we would be able to assess the true ecological value of the system from all perspectives, including climate change and drainage. We would then gladly come back here and the Minister could prove me wrong, but what she is proposing at this stage is absolutely the wrong way for the country to go. This is not about greening Ireland but destroying it. It is an attempt to damage our natural environment. It will damage the rural way of life and is potentially damaging to the farming community which, as Senator Kevin Humphreys said, wants to avail of all of the funding mechanisms available, including GLAS. What the Minister is proposing can damage this for them and the livelihood of the small family farm in rural Ireland. I am, therefore, fundamentally opposed to the Bill and hope the Minister can do better for us.