Fianna Fáil is proposing an amendment to the Heritage Bill that would reduce the scope of the proposed relaxed hedgecutting dates. While the bill initiated by the Government more than a year ago would allow cutting in August of “any hedge” on a farmer’s land within the regulations of a two-year pilot scheme, the Fianna Fáil amendment would change this to “roadside hedges” only.

The Heritage Bill has been bogged down in debates on this section in the Seanad since November. Fianna Fáil senator Paul Daly told the Irish Farmers Journal that while hedgecutting is already allowed for road safety reasons during the closed period, a farmer must obtain permission from the local authority to do so. “By the time that happens, if there was a real risk, it could cause a serious accident,” he said.

The amended bill would allow farmers to perform road safety works without prior authorisation, such as establishing a line of sight to a gate, Daly added. “If you knew you were going to work for two days in a field doing silage along a busy road and wanted to cut 50m on each side, at the moment in August this would be illegal,” he said.

IFA environment chairman Thomas Cooney understood that the initial bill would result in farmers being allowed August hedgecutting in preparation for reseeding or winter crop sowing, but the Fianna Fáil amendment is putting this into question. “They’re neutralising the bill and leaving a bill that is of no use to farmers,” Cooney said. “Fianna Fáil is caving in to the Greens,” he added, calling on the party to withdraw its amendment.

Daly replied that he was “totally in favour of farmers,” while, “the Greens want no change”.

Fine Gael senator Tim Lombard told the Irish Farmers Journal that he hoped the bill would be passed unchanged at a marathon Seanad session next week, stressing that the plan was to allow trimming of overgrowth only during the closed period. “If Fianna Fáil pushes with their amendment, which I hope they won’t, we won’t have the numbers to get it through,” he warned.