Protection of Hedgerows Bill 2024: First Stage
I move:
That leave be granted to introduce a Bill entitled an Act to make provision for the protection of hedgerows, to confer power on the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to make regulations for the protection of significant hedgerows and for the establishment of a register of significant hedgerows, to prohibit the removal of significant hedgerows except in specified circumstances, to make provision for an appeals procedure and for offences for infringement of this Act and regulations made thereunder; to amend the Roads Act 1993; to amend the Forestry Act 2014; to amend the Communications Regulation Act 2002; to amend the Electricity (Supply) Act 1927; to amend the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001; to amend the Transport (Dublin Light Rail) Act 1996 and to make provision for a notification mechanism to local authorities regarding potential or actual infringements of this Act and regulations made thereunder; and to provide for related matters.
I am very pleased to be able to introduce the Protection of Hedgerows Bill 2024 during our national biodiversity week. In a landscape that has been radically altered from the extensively forested island that neolithic farmers found when they first came to these shores, our hedgerows remain a vital repository of natural heritage that crisscross our countryside. They act as wildlife corridors for our mammalian species, they are larders and nesting sites for our bird life and are home to countless insect species that sustain the wider food web. They slow the flow of water across the landscape helping to prevent and protect against flooding. We are learning too that they play an important role in sequestering carbon, which helps in our fight against climate change. More than all of this they gladden the heart too, from the first flush of hawthorn in the springtime to the rich bounty of the blackberry, rosehip and sloe come the autumn.
Our legal protection of this important feature of our landscape is currently sorely deficient, an issue which this Bill seeks to address. For example, in Wales there is a requirement to make an application in the context of the removal of 20 m or more of hedgerow. In Ireland, a landowner can remove 500 m of hedgerow without the required screening provided that the same length of hedgerow is planted elsewhere beforehand. Research has shown that less than one third of our remaining hedgerows are in good condition. The purpose of the Bill is to provide for: the protection of significant hedgerows; the establishment of a register of significant hedgerows; a prohibition on the removal of significant hedgerows except in specified circumstances; an appeals procedure and offences for infringement; and a notification mechanism to local authorities regarding potential or actual infringements of the Bill’s provisions. There is no legal definition of what constitutes a hedgerow in legislation at present and nor is one provided in this Bill.
Our solution here is the concept of a significant hedgerow. The provisions prohibit significant removal of hedgerows, except with permission or in other limited circumstances. A significant hedgerow will be identified by reference to its contribution to several factors, set out in section 3(3), including the protection, maintenance and improvement of biodiversity, ecosystem services, the integrity of archaeological and historical heritage or cultural sites or features and agricultural systems. The Bill also includes the term “potentially significant hedgerow”. This is intended to cater for any uncertainty a landowner may feel regarding whether a particular hedgerow falls into the category of significant.
Section 10 sets would empower the Minister to set down the regulations for the factors to be considered in regard to measuring the contribution of a hedgerow. The process will be administered by local authorities. Sections 28 and 29 will ensure that local authorities make records of applications, grants and orders available for public inspection. The Bill outlines enforcement provisions and penalties, which broadly align with those for offences under the Wildlife Act and Forestry Acts. Section 20 allows a court to impose a remedial payment on any person convicted of the offence of removing a significant hedgerow where the consequences of removal adversely affect the ecosystem of a local area by reducing the sequestration or storage of atmospheric carbon.
I am conscious of the work of many people far more expert than me in the framing of this Bill. I thank, in particular, the members of Hedgerows Ireland, who were the impetus behind the development of this project; the members of the Climate Bar Association, who donated their time to the hedgerows legislation project; and, in particular, Leesha O’Driscoll SC, who chaired that project. I also thank Alannah Shesgreen, who carried out the relevant research as part of her LLM in environmental and natural resources law in UCC under the supervision of Professor Owen McIntyre. I also thank my cosignatories, namely Deputies Leddin and Matthews.
In introducing the Protection of Hedgerows Bill during Biodiversity Week, I took the opportunity to mark the passing of Ethna Viney last month, following her husband Michael into their eternal rest. The column Another Life was a punctuation point in my Saturday mornings for much of my adult life, with Ethna’s complementary Eye on Nature gently responding to readers’ curious questions about the natural world around us. Who could better describe in such matter-of-fact poetry the layering of heritage and history we see in hedgerows that crisscross our landscape than Michael, who wrote the following in 2017:
I skulk behind hedges already far older than I am. It’s a century since hawthorn quicks were pressed into our acre’s banks and now, neglected and storm-sheared, the aged bushes lean like dancers locked in mid-leap.
That is the type of heritage we are seeking to protect in this Bill. It is incredibly important, now more than ever, that we protect these vital features in our landscape. For that reason, I commend the Bill to the House.
