March
100,000 euro fine for Coolmore linked company for multiple hedgerow removal offences.
Members of Hedgerows Ireland provided key video and other evidence to Department of Agriculture officials in a case involving the illegal removal by a Coolmore company of 1,150 metres of mature hedgerows in the autumn of 2022 at a location near New Inn in Co. Tipperary. The offences were compounded by the breaching of a prohibition notice at the site the following year when clay banks were removed at the same location.
It is to be hoped that the very significant fine imposed by Judge Deirdre Browne will act as a serious deterrent to future breaches of the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations and other relevant hedgerow protection legislation. Hedgerows Ireland wishes to thank the DAFM investigating team headed by Imogen McGuinness whose meticulous professionalism ensured the successful outcome of the case.
Alan Moore (with PJ O'Meara, Chair Hedgerows Ireland) reads a press statement outside Clonmel District Court following sentencing
Corporate land purchase and hedgerow removal
Delegation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee outside Leinster House
Hedgerows Ireland were called to the Joint Oireachtas Agriculture Committee in March to give evidence about land availability problems especially for new and entrant farmers. Alan Moore gave evidence about the documented association between corporate land investment purchase (which is making land unaffordable) and environmental harm, including extensive hedgerow removal. He outlined proposals to incentivise hedgerow quality in the new CAP payments 2028-2034. The delegation was led by Daniel Long from the Land Observatory Stakeholders Group to which Hedgerows Ireland is affiliated.
Alan Moore gives evidence at the Joint Oireachtas Committee
April News
Meeting with Minister Christopher O’Sullivan
Minister Christopher O'Sullivan with Alan Moore
Hedgerows Ireland met online with the Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity to discuss measures to protect hedgerows, including the 2024 Protection of Hedgerows Bill. The Bill seeks protection for 'significant' hedgerows because of their particular biodiversity, heritage or other contributions to the landscape. We had invited the Minister to re-launch the Bill which reached the Second Stage under the previous coalition government. Minister O’Sullivan expressed an interest in incorporating aspects of the Bill into the Nature Restoration Plan which is currently being developed under his leadership.
Better payments for hedgerow quality
Hedgerows Ireland are continuing to lobby for better payments for hedgerows in the next CAP schemes 2028-2034. We have been invited by DAFM to submit proposals for workable payment schemes which will be practicable and easily implementable and we are working with partners in aerial surveillance and biodiversity measurement to deliver on this brief.