Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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706. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of exemptions in relation to the ban on hedge cutting during nesting season applied for and granted by each local authority in 2020 and to date in 2021, in tabular form; and the reason for the exemption in each case. [15353/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The dates for the cutting of hedges are set down in primary legislation. Section 40 of the Wildlife Acts Act prohibits the cutting of vegetation, with certain strict exemptions, from 1 March to 31 August.

There is provision in the legislation for certain exemptions in respect of cutting vegetation in the ordinary course of agriculture or forestry, for health and safety reasons, the destruction of noxious weeds and for cutting roadside hedges for road safety reasons. I do not have information on the extent to which public bodies may have used any such exemptions.