Bleak broad canvas painted of environment damage, neglect

Up to 1,000 kilometres of hedgerow are being destroyed every year by one-off housing, agricultural changes and road projects, a weekend conference has been told.

This was just one aspect of a bleak picture of environmental destruction and underfunding outlined by Mr Paddy Matthews, planning officer of the Heritage Council.

Since the 1830s, 34 per cent of national monuments have been lost, with the rate of destruction peaking in recent years, Mr Matthews told an An Taisce conference on planning and communities.

A once-common farmland bird, the corn bunting, has become extinct as a breeding species in Ireland within the last three years, and another bird, the corncrake, remains under serious threat.

Meanwhile, 42 per cent of private group water schemes around the State are polluted.

Mr Matthews said the "transformation of farmland into a cash crop for housing" was the single biggest challenge facing the planning system today.

One in seven farmers sold a site for housing last year, he pointed out.

One-off housing in the countryside accounted for the destruction of 420 kms of hedgerow in 1999 yet, ironically, agricultural activity was exempt from planning control.

He said the rate of take-up by local authorities of recommendations relating to protected structures made by the Minister for the Environment was "alarmingly slow".

In the past two years only 90 ministerial recommendations were accepted, and five were refused, while no response had been received to 3,352 recommendations.

Mr Matthews described cuts in grant-aid for protected structures by the Department as "nothing short of an unmitigated disaster".

About €6 million was available through local authorities last year, but after some local authorities failed to spend their allocation, the fund was cut to €3.36 million this year.

On the positive side, the first county heritage plans had been published (in Sligo, Laois, Offaly and Dublin city) and five more are due next year (Westmeath, Kerry, Galway City, Clare and Carlow). To date, 21 heritage officers had been appointed to local authorities.