Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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690. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he is taking to fulfil the Programme for Government commitment to complete a national hedgerow survey; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25573/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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In 2019, under the EPA Research Funded Projects (2014-2020), the Biomass Retrieval in Ireland using Active Remote (BRIAR) sensing project, produced by Teagasc, estimated that Ireland has national estimate for hedgerow length in Ireland of 689,000km.

In line with the commitment in Programme for Government, actions by the Department include the forthcoming pilot Farm Environmental Survey (FES) aims to capture the habitats and biodiversity potential already present on our farms, including our hedgerow networks. The recently launched REAP scheme will include assessment of hedgerow habitat quality on the pilot farms.

In addition to these actions, a national land cover map of habitats being developed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Ordnance Survey Ireland, with contributions from various Government agencies including the Department, will be concluded this year.  The results and long-term implementation of these initiatives are hoped to provide great strides in gathering data on our hedgerow habitats and more. Efforts such as these will be essential in establishing our biodiversity baseline on farms which can benefit the farmer and the environment.