Environmental Impact Assessments
Dail Éireann — 2022-10-25
============================================================

Brian Leddin (GP), Limerick City

While I welcome the reviews the Minister referenced, will he indicate the timeline for their completion? I also welcome his comments on the changes in the CAP, which have been well flagged.
Under the EIA regulations that are in place, if one is removing a hedgerow with a length of 500 m or more or removing a field boundary, one must apply for screening, but there is otherwise no requirement to apply. This leaves out a lot of hedgerows straightaway and is a fundamental flaw in the current regulations. In the UK, there is an interim measure whereby the limit is 20 m rather than 500 m. I understand the Minister has the power to make the same reduction here. Notwithstanding the limitations of the rule, is there a sense of adherence to it? Could it be the case that many hedgerows that are greater than 500 m in length are being illegally removed? Has the Department done an analysis of illegal hedgerow removal?

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-10-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:13+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-10-25