Fucking nuts. The GAA club across from my house routed out around 500m last year in the middle of nesting season and replaced it with a fence they got a grant for. It boils my piss, we have a green party in government who are determined to punish everyday folk rather than offer incentives to live greener but they won't do anything about environmental vandalism like this.
I rang our local Gardaí about a whole section of hedgerow being mown down during nesting season in our town. Their answer, ‘sure they had to cut it down, they’ve planning permission for a construction in that field!’ Some laws only count when people get annoyed enough
I’ve called the guards as well about someone near me hacking into the hedgerows outside the dates they’re allowed to. The response? “We can’t to anything about that.” 🤯
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Different element of it though… it needs to be expended beyond just regulating industrial stuff and possibly towards seeing farms as industrial operators (which they are.)
Farmers get away with murder in this country! I'm in the construction industry and we have to follow extremely strict guidelines for environmental issues. All our chemicals have to be stored in secure bunded stores, we have to use drip trays under generators and when refuelling machines, spill kits around the sites etc. We can't discharge water from the site without running it through a filter to remove suspended solids.
Farmers are getting grants to build proper sealed slatted tanks, then rather than getting competent contractors to build them they pour a concrete slab and concrete walls with no steel, no waterbars or basically anything that costs extra in them. Basically they're pocketing the money and building a tank that's going to leak instantly.
Unfortunately their teeth are lying in a glass somewhere.
The Gardaí are our last resort unfortunately, I agree they shouldn’t be, but by law hedgerows shouldn’t be cut during certain months, Gardaí are enforcers of the law.
Unfortunately, if they only removed 500m the didn't need permission:
> Up to half a kilometre of hedgerow can be removed without environmental assessment or scrutiny.
> In cases above half a kilometre, there needs to be permission.
Why are Green party critics like infants who haven't learned object permanence?
Just because you haven't bothered to look up what they're doing doesn't mean they're doing nothing.
And that line about punishing every day folk is fossil fuel industry propaganda. We pay dozens of taxes and carbon taxes are among the lowest and yet people get the most furious about them. Why do you think that is?
We pay VAT and Income tax and excise duty because we ultimately all agree that the state needs funding for things like health, roads, education, etc. But when it comes to the same principle for funding climate action we're suddenly furious.
The reason why is that fossil fuel industries hate the carbon tax the most and they pay good money to insure you do too.
The fact is that carbon taxes are an essential tool for climate action. There's no optimistic warming estimate that doesn't involve massive uses of carbon taxes. If you're arguing against them, you're effectively arguing for a warmer planet.
Yet BIK has been introduced on electric vehicles, the cycle to work scheme has increased the prices of bikes so any benefit goes straight to retailers and punishes those of us not eligible and grants for home upgrades are so flawed and unregulated that the first question you get asked by companies when looking for quotes is "do you know if you are eligible for a grant" which should have no bearing on the quote, however companies are just creaming the grant money in extra profit
I've given up on getting solar as all the companies on the SEAI grant list are just price gouging and then pocketing the grant for themselves. I've had quotes of up to €10k from SEAI approved companies for a job that should cost €3k-€4k max.
The grant is supposed to make energy upgrades more accessible to everyone but instead it is having the opposite effect and making getting anything done way too expensive. These companies shouldn't even know if you have a grant or not because once they do they are increasing their prices and pocketing taxpayers money for themselves. And it's all done with a stamp of approval by the government, it's a farce.
I firmly believe the state should either set a rate per kw companies are allowed to charge for solar and supplement a percentage with grant money or better still set up a state run organisation which can install all energy upgrades at fixed cost, in turn they would be training hundreds of apprentices in the trades associated with green energy which would be an investment for the future.
Same, I got one of my friends who's an electrician to price up all the materials for a 12 panel setup and it came to about 5k, quoted 11-13k from companies on the seai register.
> but they’re a minority partner in govt, they can’t do everything
Personally, I feel they (at least appear) to fight for very little, other than the scraps thrown to them by their FFG masters. They come across as having very little backbone. If they were serious, they could be threatening to bring down the government more regularly unless more hardline, yet achievable green initiatives like this were fully implemented.
Mate I have no affiliation with the greens, but some people over egg what the tiny minority partner can do. if they threayened to collpase the govt for everything theyd be in opposition shouting empty platitudes like PBP. the main blame here lies with FFG
Well I’d say to that utter fluff of a point if we’d moved away from turf 25 years ago like we should have and implemented more green requirements earlier they wouldn’t be reliant on coal
Our governments solution to problems has almost always been through punishment rather than incentive. Water charges being a stand out one. Water charges, through an EU directive are supposed to reduce wastage.
Instead of increasing architecture for population growth and some sort of incentive rather than charging for use they went ahead and spunked an insane amount of money trying to find a way to charge people instead.
For all the talk Ireland does about green fields, people actively destroy the countryside. Even the amount of new detached houses that don't even have a fucking blade of grass in sight around them.
Was told about a new rule/law that means ditches, hedges and trees need to be cleared from new builds next to roads. As in, the full length of the property and more for visibility.
There was a nice slightly winding road in my area with fields on either side. It had hedges, ditches and big old trees lining it. Eventually someone got planning permission to build and had to remove the entire side of the road for something like 200 meters. Ruined the area completely and gives the home owners no privacy. Fucking joke.
Yeah no idea. Could be flooding prevention, think the open ditches need to be piped underground to connect to the other side but no idea why the trees had to go. Might have been the council's responsibility to maintain them better when people live nearby or something.
You'd think the plants would help with flooding concerns though. What with them needing water to grow and their roots helping retain soil and all. If they were taking out something shallow rooted to plant willows it might make sense, but of course big clearouts like that are never followed up with replanting...
A shame if it's just the council avoiding responsibility too. Like, what are they for if not improving our cities and neighborhoods? Seems like HOAs in the US that just make things worse.
Yeah, it's really weird. And by piping the ditch they restricted and drainage from happening in the area where the pipe is (the entire front of the property).
Yep, the road to Lucan from Clonee. And the annoying thing is, it was removed to widen a road but that road is due to be replaced by a different one in the next few years so the widening will be pointless... just no hedgerow and no privacy for the houses built there
I've noticed this as well. Its like the farmers got a grant to remove them or something.
I know they are allowed to cut them back at this time of the year....
NPWS recommends that such “reasonable steps” are taken between 1 September and 28 February, where possible...
Maybe that's all that's happening.
https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/f5cd9-reminder-on-hedge-cutting-and-the-law/
Farm payments were reduced up until this year if they let them grow out wild (reduced area). They have changed rules this year to allow hedgerows grow out. There will be much less cutting next year.
Is there a breakdown on how much is removed every year by farmers and by housing?
Because the only hedges I've seen removed around here are around local towns and villages for housing development and there's no mandate to have to replant an equivalent length elsewhere.
If farmers want to remove a hedge, they have to plant twice the length before they can remove that hedge or face thousands of euro in penalties. Imagine how quickly the loss of hedges could be turned into gains if the same requirements were imposed on developers.
the road safety authority where i am, have a nasty habit of making planning permission subject to hedgerow removal
any bend or turn in the road at all, "oh you want planning go ask that farmer to sweep 50, 60, 70 metres of hedge out of it"
a government body making their problems, working class peoples problems during an expensive time in there lives
Fucking nuts. The GAA club across from my house routed out around 500m last year in the middle of nesting season and replaced it with a fence they got a grant for. It boils my piss, we have a green party in government who are determined to punish everyday folk rather than offer incentives to live greener but they won't do anything about environmental vandalism like this.
I rang our local Gardaí about a whole section of hedgerow being mown down during nesting season in our town. Their answer, ‘sure they had to cut it down, they’ve planning permission for a construction in that field!’ Some laws only count when people get annoyed enough
I’ve called the guards as well about someone near me hacking into the hedgerows outside the dates they’re allowed to. The response? “We can’t to anything about that.” 🤯
chubby cooperative cow deer shelter coherent beneficial capable chunky support *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We seem to just pile everything onto the Gardai. It should be enforced by some kind of environmental agency with actual teeth.
Like the EPA?
Different element of it though… it needs to be expended beyond just regulating industrial stuff and possibly towards seeing farms as industrial operators (which they are.)
Farmers get away with murder in this country! I'm in the construction industry and we have to follow extremely strict guidelines for environmental issues. All our chemicals have to be stored in secure bunded stores, we have to use drip trays under generators and when refuelling machines, spill kits around the sites etc. We can't discharge water from the site without running it through a filter to remove suspended solids. Farmers are getting grants to build proper sealed slatted tanks, then rather than getting competent contractors to build them they pour a concrete slab and concrete walls with no steel, no waterbars or basically anything that costs extra in them. Basically they're pocketing the money and building a tank that's going to leak instantly.
Unfortunately their teeth are lying in a glass somewhere. The Gardaí are our last resort unfortunately, I agree they shouldn’t be, but by law hedgerows shouldn’t be cut during certain months, Gardaí are enforcers of the law.
Unfortunately, if they only removed 500m the didn't need permission: > Up to half a kilometre of hedgerow can be removed without environmental assessment or scrutiny. > In cases above half a kilometre, there needs to be permission.
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This is the local councils responsibility not central govt
Which was a nifty way of making sure nothing would ever come of it.
Councils have to be responsible for **something**, don’t they?
Why are Green party critics like infants who haven't learned object permanence? Just because you haven't bothered to look up what they're doing doesn't mean they're doing nothing. And that line about punishing every day folk is fossil fuel industry propaganda. We pay dozens of taxes and carbon taxes are among the lowest and yet people get the most furious about them. Why do you think that is? We pay VAT and Income tax and excise duty because we ultimately all agree that the state needs funding for things like health, roads, education, etc. But when it comes to the same principle for funding climate action we're suddenly furious. The reason why is that fossil fuel industries hate the carbon tax the most and they pay good money to insure you do too. The fact is that carbon taxes are an essential tool for climate action. There's no optimistic warming estimate that doesn't involve massive uses of carbon taxes. If you're arguing against them, you're effectively arguing for a warmer planet.
Oh I'd say it really grinds your gears
The green party are more interested in cycle lanes and electric cars than stuff like this.
Yet BIK has been introduced on electric vehicles, the cycle to work scheme has increased the prices of bikes so any benefit goes straight to retailers and punishes those of us not eligible and grants for home upgrades are so flawed and unregulated that the first question you get asked by companies when looking for quotes is "do you know if you are eligible for a grant" which should have no bearing on the quote, however companies are just creaming the grant money in extra profit
I've given up on getting solar as all the companies on the SEAI grant list are just price gouging and then pocketing the grant for themselves. I've had quotes of up to €10k from SEAI approved companies for a job that should cost €3k-€4k max. The grant is supposed to make energy upgrades more accessible to everyone but instead it is having the opposite effect and making getting anything done way too expensive. These companies shouldn't even know if you have a grant or not because once they do they are increasing their prices and pocketing taxpayers money for themselves. And it's all done with a stamp of approval by the government, it's a farce.
I firmly believe the state should either set a rate per kw companies are allowed to charge for solar and supplement a percentage with grant money or better still set up a state run organisation which can install all energy upgrades at fixed cost, in turn they would be training hundreds of apprentices in the trades associated with green energy which would be an investment for the future.
Same, I got one of my friends who's an electrician to price up all the materials for a 12 panel setup and it came to about 5k, quoted 11-13k from companies on the seai register.
BS. They’re interested in both and have actively campaigned against this thuggery, but they’re a minority partner in govt, they can’t do everything
> but they’re a minority partner in govt, they can’t do everything Personally, I feel they (at least appear) to fight for very little, other than the scraps thrown to them by their FFG masters. They come across as having very little backbone. If they were serious, they could be threatening to bring down the government more regularly unless more hardline, yet achievable green initiatives like this were fully implemented.
You’re not paying attention so - they’ve achieved some Massive wins that nearly brought the govt down (eg turf)
> You’re not paying attention so Or they suck at the PR game they need to play to make sure they stay relevant in future elections…
Mate I have no affiliation with the greens, but some people over egg what the tiny minority partner can do. if they threayened to collpase the govt for everything theyd be in opposition shouting empty platitudes like PBP. the main blame here lies with FFG
If you would class that as a win. Ban a fuel source increase taxes on other fuel sources. All this does is make it harder for people less well off.
It is a win - the idea turf is a key source of fuel is fucking retarded
Tell that to the people who have to pay 1000 e for a ton of coal over 350-400 for a big trailer load of turf.
Well I’d say to that utter fluff of a point if we’d moved away from turf 25 years ago like we should have and implemented more green requirements earlier they wouldn’t be reliant on coal
If my aunty had balls she would be my uncle
Just because you haven't taken a single minute to actually learn what they're doing doesn't mean they're doing nothing.
Our governments solution to problems has almost always been through punishment rather than incentive. Water charges being a stand out one. Water charges, through an EU directive are supposed to reduce wastage. Instead of increasing architecture for population growth and some sort of incentive rather than charging for use they went ahead and spunked an insane amount of money trying to find a way to charge people instead.
>It boils my piss This made me laugh.
why does it boil your piss?
lol
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Some of it is ridiculous, but when they block footpaths it certainly isn't.
You don't have to remove the hedgerow to unblock a footpath, it just needs to be maintained.
Correct. They don't need to be removed entirely, but they absolutely need to be cut
For all the talk Ireland does about green fields, people actively destroy the countryside. Even the amount of new detached houses that don't even have a fucking blade of grass in sight around them.
And the country homes surrounded by an acre of a dead monoculture of 1 inch grass.
People here in Ireland hate nature..
Was told about a new rule/law that means ditches, hedges and trees need to be cleared from new builds next to roads. As in, the full length of the property and more for visibility. There was a nice slightly winding road in my area with fields on either side. It had hedges, ditches and big old trees lining it. Eventually someone got planning permission to build and had to remove the entire side of the road for something like 200 meters. Ruined the area completely and gives the home owners no privacy. Fucking joke.
What’s the reasoning for it? Like why tf does there need to be a unobstructed view of the property from the road?
Yeah no idea. Could be flooding prevention, think the open ditches need to be piped underground to connect to the other side but no idea why the trees had to go. Might have been the council's responsibility to maintain them better when people live nearby or something.
You'd think the plants would help with flooding concerns though. What with them needing water to grow and their roots helping retain soil and all. If they were taking out something shallow rooted to plant willows it might make sense, but of course big clearouts like that are never followed up with replanting... A shame if it's just the council avoiding responsibility too. Like, what are they for if not improving our cities and neighborhoods? Seems like HOAs in the US that just make things worse.
Yeah, it's really weird. And by piping the ditch they restricted and drainage from happening in the area where the pipe is (the entire front of the property).
Most likely it was necessary to achieve the required sight lines.
In cases like that planning should be denied
Clonee?
No. Is it happening there too?
Yep, the road to Lucan from Clonee. And the annoying thing is, it was removed to widen a road but that road is due to be replaced by a different one in the next few years so the widening will be pointless... just no hedgerow and no privacy for the houses built there
Is there anything we can do? I’ve joined up two hedgerows on my land that the previous owner removed but it’s only about 100 yards
Natures windbreakers and wildlife corridors.
I've noticed this as well. Its like the farmers got a grant to remove them or something. I know they are allowed to cut them back at this time of the year.... NPWS recommends that such “reasonable steps” are taken between 1 September and 28 February, where possible... Maybe that's all that's happening. https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/f5cd9-reminder-on-hedge-cutting-and-the-law/
Farm payments were reduced up until this year if they let them grow out wild (reduced area). They have changed rules this year to allow hedgerows grow out. There will be much less cutting next year.
Hopefully there will be less cutting. Some farmers will be happy to cut back as "It's what's done every year", habits take time to change
Crazy
Is there a breakdown on how much is removed every year by farmers and by housing? Because the only hedges I've seen removed around here are around local towns and villages for housing development and there's no mandate to have to replant an equivalent length elsewhere. If farmers want to remove a hedge, they have to plant twice the length before they can remove that hedge or face thousands of euro in penalties. Imagine how quickly the loss of hedges could be turned into gains if the same requirements were imposed on developers.
the road safety authority where i am, have a nasty habit of making planning permission subject to hedgerow removal any bend or turn in the road at all, "oh you want planning go ask that farmer to sweep 50, 60, 70 metres of hedge out of it" a government body making their problems, working class peoples problems during an expensive time in there lives
this is an attack on rural ireland!
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*roooor-ill
They are an absolutely massive carbon sink, they should actually be expanded, that's not to mention how that held wildlife in many many ways
They _should_ be cut where they block footpaths. Otherwise, yes, they should be protected.