Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have to respond to the earlier remarks. I am very supportive of the Irish farming community. We would not have the landscape we have without the farmers. They have cared for the environment. We have what we have because of them. In this House, we have actually listened to each other. We may have started from different places but we have moved closer together. At a very early stage, I made the same suggestion that section 8 be shelved, and that we look at the signs and develop a logical approach. If we want to deal with the road safety element, Senator Higgins's road safety amendment could be adopted by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, when he gets around to doing something.

I doubt anyone is happy with the idea and taking it on trust. We have to understand what the baseline is. The baseline cannot be Twenty-six Counties. If we are asking for a study to be done, or a change in legislation to allow a study or a pilot project be carried out, it cannot be on a Twenty-six County basis. I said earlier that this is a place to start from, if we insist on going forward. This is not a townie versus rural Ireland. It is actually the opposite. The vast majority of e-mails I have received on this issue come from outside the Dublin area from the agricultural community and from people who live and work in rural Ireland. I was accused earlier of just being a Dublin 4 person. Hedgerows are an important part of our environment. I thank the Minister for the indication that she is removing the words "grubbing and destroying". I also notice she has changed her language. In the Bill the word used is "cutting" but she is using the word "trimming". Does that refer to a different length or distance?

A job well done would be to allow the canal section of this Bill to progress, and possibly send section 8 into an Oireachtas committee. Let us invite everybody in to discuss this in depth to ensure we are doing the right thing. It is not just the birds, bats and hedgehogs. It is about farmer's livelihoods as well. There is REPS and payments are made to the protection of the environment. That all has to be considered.

Rural Ireland is facing great problems with Brexit. Its economic viability is going to be threatened in the coming two years, and as a country and a nation we need to stand together. To build trust between the communities we should remove section 8 and send it to an Oireachtas committee, perhaps the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.