CARLOW CIRCUIT COURT upheld the decision of Carlow District Court to convict and fine a man €6,000 for five Wildlife Act Offences.
Judge Gerard Griffin upheld a fine of €3,000 for the destruction of birds’ nests and their eggs and €3,000 for damaging vegetation during the bird-nesting season.
Brian O’Reilly, of Clonagh, Hollywood, Co Laois, initially pleaded guilty to the charges in September 2021 but lodged an appeal which was rejected today.
District Conservation Officer Kieran Buckley, of the National Parks & Wildlife Service, told the judge the sheer scale of the damage to the hedgerows and the mature hardwood trees was effectively the death of a local farmland ecosystem.
Twelve hundred linear metres of hedgerow vegetation, with an average width of eleven metres had been completely torn up along with fifty-four mature hardwood trees.
The nests of five different hedgerow bird species were found with their eggs smashed or abandoned by the parent birds because of the damage.
He described this outcome to the judge as a significant blow for local farmland birds, notably when the State had declared a Biodiversity Crisis.
Buckley told the Court that by tearing out the hedgerow vegetation and the mature trees, O’Reilly increased the size of areas farmed to claim additional subsidy payments, which the judge described as a reward for criminality.
The average age of the mature trees was 100 years, and Buckley stated that it would take half a century for the nearby ecosystem to recover.
He added that O’Reilly had attempted to change his story several times and had claimed that he was unaware of the dates in which it was unlawful to cut vegetation.
Buckley remarked that even the dogs on the street know those dates.
The judge described the photographic evidence of the destroyed vegetation as horrendous and said that if O’Reilly had initially plead not guilty that he could have been fined €25,000 in the District Court for the Wildlife Act offences he committed.
The judge praised the investigative work of the National Parks & Wildlife Service before ending the hearing.
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