Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael)
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191. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if her department conducted an environmental impact study to ensure that there would be no serious impact on a range of wildlife species and habitats here, especially highly threatened nesting birds and pollinators found in hedgerows and upland, before making the proposed changes to the Heritage Bill that will allow for the burning of vegetation in March and the cutting of hedgerows in August; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12545/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Section 40 of the Wildlife Acts 1976, as amended, prohibits the cutting, grubbing, burning or destruction of vegetation, with certain strict exemptions, from 1 March to 31 August. Following a review of Section 40, which involved, inter alia, consideration of submissions from interested parties, I announced proposals in December 2015 to introduce legislation to allow for managed hedge cutting and burning at certain times within the existing closed period on a pilot two year basis. The legislation required to allow for these pilot measures is included in the Heritage Bill 2016, which was published in January 2016.

The Bill is currently at Committee Stage in Seanad Éireann. In the meantime, the existing provisions relating to Section 40 of the Wildlife Acts remain in force.