Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

338. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the circumstances in which it is permissible under law for trees to be pruned during the nesting season; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9174/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Section 40 of the Wildlife Act 1976 creates two prohibitions that apply between 1 March and 31 August annually.

- Subsection (1)(a) makes it an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy, during that period, any vegetation growing on any land not then cultivated.

- Subsection (1)(b) makes it an offence for a person to cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy, during that period, any vegetation growing in any hedge or ditch.

Section 40 does not prohibit the pruning of trees that are not growing in hedges or ditches or on land that is “not then cultivated”.

Where a tree is growing in a hedge, it is an offence under section 40 to prune it during the nesting season unless one of the eight circumstances listed in section 40(2) apply.

One of these is where the cutting, lopping, or trimming of a tree is done pursuant to section 70 of the Roads Act 1993. Section 70(2)(a) provides that the owner or occupier of land shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that a tree is not a hazard or potential hazard to persons using a public road and that it does not obstruct or interfere with the safe use of a public road or the maintenance of a public road.

It should be noted that the above answer refers only to section 40 of the Wildlife Act. Other law might also be relevant in some circumstances, such as: other provisions of the Wildlife Act 1976 that relate to disturbance and injury to birds, eggs and nests; forestry law; laws applying to designated protected areas; local bye-laws, and civil law.