Bank of Ireland is set to give away over 1,000 hedgerow plants at the 2022 National Ploughing Championships, in an initiative to promote biodiversity and sustainability.

The plants will be Department of Agriculture approved native Irish hedgerow plants and will be given out to people visiting the Bank of Ireland stand.

This year's Ploughing is taking place in Ratheniska, Co Laois, between September 20 and 22.

The gifting of these plants acts as a further reminder to people of the journey needing to be travelled in order to meet vital environmental challenges, according to Bank of Ireland.

New accounts

Bank of Ireland will also have personnel on hand at its event area on all three days to support customers looking to open new current accounts and directly engaging with its agri-sector customers.

The latest hedgerow gifting initiative follows on from the Bank boosting the value of its Sustainable Finance Fund to €5bn in 2022, providing key finance for the development of Ireland’s renewable energy sector and also supporting more Irish drivers in making the switch to electric vehicles.

Bank of Ireland head of agri Eoin Lowry said: “Our goal is to underline the importance of the role everyone can play in promoting biodiversity and taking steps to improve sustainability, so to be able to hand out over 1,000 hedgerow plants over the three days is major move in the right direction.”

National Ploughing Association managing director Anna May McHugh said: “NPA are delighted to be partnering with Bank of Ireland again this year, and are fully supportive of this key environmental hedgerow plant give away as sustainability is a key objective at this year’s National Ploughing Championships.

"This year at the Ploughing there will be numerous sustainability initiatives, for example the NPA will be promoting the use of recyclable products, food waste will be converted into energy through an anaerobic digester and there will also be solar panelled lighting towers, cardboard compactors, litter fines and waste separation operations on-site.”