Vol. 501 No. 6
70 Mr. E. Kenny asked the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands the native Irish trees and shrubs protected under the Wildlife Act, 1976, and by the special areas of conservation in hedgerows; her views on the continuing loss of some of these; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6919/99]
I refer the Deputy to my reply to Question No. 304 of 16 February 1999. The most common trees and shrubs found in hedgerows are hawthorn, blackthorn, ash, elm, gorse, willow, hazel and holly. These species are not specifically protected under the Wildlife Act, 1976, but hedgerows receive protection under section 40 of the Act, which restricts the cutting, grubbing, burning and destruction of vegetation on uncultivated land during the critical nesting period of 15 April to 31 August. Similarly, regulations transposing the Habitats Directive into Irish law restrict damaging hedgerow destruction in special areas of conservation. While the loss of hedgerows and the valuable wildlife habitat which they provide is of concern, I believe that the rural environment protection scheme – REPS – administered by the Department of Agriculture and Food, will play an important part in contributing to the protection of hedgerow habitats.
The Deputy should also be aware that the issue of hedgerow conservation is receiving consideration by me in the context of the forthcoming amendment of the Wildlife Act and I expect to bring forward a number of amendments which will seek to strengthen the protective provisions applying to hedgerows. Furthermore, under the national biodiversity plan which I am preparing, some possible measures to improve the conservation of hedgerows have been identified and I intend to afford further consideration to those measures in the context of the finalisation of the plan.
