Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge and support what Senator Alice-Mary Higgins said. We have made huge progress in getting rid of terms such as "grubbing" and "destroying" hedgerows. I never saw a heritage Bill as being conducive to the use of such terms. We have come a long way which I welcome and it would be most unfortunate if we were to row back at a later stage and unpick all of the work we have done in recent months on the Bill. We have listened and engaged with those involved in various sectors such as farmers, the environmental NGOs and communities which were supportive of protecting hedgerows in the month of August. We recognise that in what she has proposed the Minister has gone some way towards acknowledging what we put forward, but there is a danger that the amendment will be unpicked and rowed back on later, which would be a crisis.