Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can use my own example. I live in a place called Minane Bridge. I will not be cutting a hedge in August because I do not need to. I am a grassland farmer. I do not need to cut those hedges. I can cut them when it comes to the appropriate time that is in the legislation at the moment. However, I have neighbours who have grain farms and when it comes to winter cereals, which is a huge issue further south from me near Kinsale, they need to cut their hedges back because they are doing their tilling and their sowing and their setting in August. They cannot do it at any other time of the year. At the moment, they do it afterwards. The weather goes against them and it affects their crops. It just does not work. The use of phrase "land management" by the Minister is such an appropriate one because that is exactly what it is. In many ways, it is helping the environment because at the moment they are doing double the work.

This legislation is looking to see if there is a better way. It will come back to this House in two years' time if it is not a better way, and we can take that into consideration then. This legislation allows for the results of the information to come back to these Houses. Then the Seanad can look at the results of what we have seen. That is appropriate, and is what the farming community wants. It has been an unfortunate, damaging debate. This is our third day in the Seanad. I have seen it in the e-mails and text messages I have received from my own part of the world and it is unfortunate how entrenched people have become. That is something that I am deeply conscious of.

This legislation set out to do two things. One was to help the farming community manage certain conditions when it comes to land use regarding re-seeding and winter cereals. That was the idea of it from an agricultural point of view. The other issue was to help road safety for the month of August, for the 31 days required. That is what the Minister has proposed, and if she brings the information back from this two year pilot study to these Houses, we will have a say. That is important and appropriate and is what people want to know, namely, that the reports will come back to these Houses when we will know exactly what is happening. How many hedges will be cut in August? Will it be everywhere? I would say less than 5%. In major grassland areas, there will be no hedge cutting done in August. That is why it is limited to such a small area. There are parishes further south from mine which have nothing but dairy cows. There will be no hedges cut there. There are parishes near Kinsale where they will be cut because that is where grain is grown. It is location, location, location.

I commend the Minister on this good legislation.We are working towards a system wherein we can see what will and what will not work. The thing I am concerned about more than anything else is the damage that has been done in terms of the urban-rural divide. That has been the unfortunate fallout from this debate. I have seen it in the public meeting I attended as well as in the information I have received from rural Ireland.