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THIS WEEK, THE Seanad debated proposed changes through the Heritage Bill 2016, which would change the dates during which hedge-cutting and burning of ditches would be allowed.
The current Wildlife Act prohibits the cutting and burning of ditches and hedges from 1 March to 31 August, during the nesting and breeding season for birds and wildlife.
The proposed changes, being introduced by Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs Heather Humphreys, provide for a two-year pilot law that would allow hedge-cutting in August and burning in March – giving farmers and landowners an additional month to complete each of these activities.
Critics of the changes say that the change in dates would have a serious impact on a range of wildlife species and habitats in Ireland, and would pose a huge threat to nesting birds and other creatures found in hedgerows and uplands.
On Wednesday of this week, environmentalist groups and various senators argued their case against the bill, with some saying that the pilot needed to be based off recommendations before it would be implemented.
Senator Grace O’Sullivan said that the debate had been ajourned after the amendments hadn’t been approved, but that “deep wounds made to this poorly-structured legislation”.
Irish Wildlife Trust Campaign Officer, Pádraic Fogarty had some strong words for both the proposed changes, and Minister Heather Humphreys.
“It is unclear why changes to hedge-cutting and burning dates are needed, while it is very clear that if the changes go ahead we will see major impacts to our wildlife.
Already we have seen massive declines in the populations of farmland birds and pollinating insects – if anything we need laws that will reverse these declines, not make them worse.
Minister Heather Humphreys is not taking her responsibility to protect our natural heritage seriously.
An Taisce, BirdWatch Ireland, the Hedge Laying Association of Ireland and the Irish Wildlife Trust are all against the proposed changes to the Heritage Bill 2016.
BirdWatch Ireland Senior Conservation Officer, Alex Copland says:
“The Wildlife Act is a key instrument to ensure protection of birds in the wider countryside. In 2007 the European Court of Justice ruled against Ireland for, among other things, failure to protect birds in the wider countryside.
“We should be doing everything in our power to strengthen the laws that protect birds like the Curlew and Yellowhammer and not weaken them”.
Road safety
On the other side of this argument are landowners and farmers, who want more time to trim ditches on country roads before bad weather sets in and have expressed road safety concerns if they don’t have the time.
Under existing rules, landowners have six months between September and February to manage hedgerows and uplands effectively and there is a provision for hedge-cutting for safety on our roads through the Roads Act (1993).
The Heritage Bill 2016 debate will be continued next Wednesday, 16 November.
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Rest in Peace..
With no disrespect to the deceased or his family, garda forensic team only need to see the video… Brush up and open the road….its obvious to a blind man what happened. RIP
Close the comments.
With no disrespect to the deceased, he could have killed someone else, absolutely shocking driving down the fast lane of a motorway in the wrong direction
It was obviously a mistake.
@Shane McGrath: was it? I’d find it hard to believe that he could make that same mistake for so long he seemed to be going down the motorway for a long time nevermind all the signs Saying do not enter when entering the On ramp if it was a 20 year old young lad who did the same there wouldn’t be this kind of sympathy.
@James: This happened to me before on the M9. Met an elderly man driving towards us while we were in the ‘over taking/ fast lane’ – thankfully we noticed it in time and there was nothing on our inside so that we managed to avoid the man. It was terrifying, rang the guards and alls they could say was ‘Yes we are aware of that’.
RIP to the poor man.
Comments should be closed.
That can quite easily happen anyone especially on that part of the road, the brutal signage and the maze of roundabouts on the slip roads is atrocious. There is very often roadworks that regularly has you driving in the other side too.
I nearly got caught out coming out McDonalds last year late at night when signs from roadworks that had finished were not removed.
@Da Dell: they drove by plenty of cars heading the other direction and should have pulled into the hard shoulder of it was a mistake, horrible anyway for everyone involved
Terrible for the mans family but it’s happening too often on that road.
Twice I’ve been driving to Dublin in the outside lane and you see a dot coming towards you …it takes seconds to realise its a car on the wrong side of the Motorway and you move in pretty quickly and hope anyone behind you see’s the car.It’s usually an elderly man on his own to be honest
The woman in the red car got out pretty quickly after the crash
@silveryD: I genuinely don’t know how she managed to get out of the car that quickly it definitely saved her life thats for sure.
For the frequency that this happens , as we do seem to see rarely byt enough to come up with something. and seeing all the cars trying to warn people on the opposite side of the road, we should come up with some universal warning like , if someone holds their horn down this means to tell the other side of the road to pull in.
@Roisin Brennan: the thing is, once you realise where do you go?
Wonder if this man’s doctor gave him okay recently to have licence. Obviously he had some form of dementia.
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