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Legal defence for the farmer said he was engaged in "routine agricultural practice". \ Philip Doyle
A Burren farmer committed “a heinously illegal act” when felling trees on his lands without a licence.
That is according to Judge Patrick Durcan, who fined David McMahon €600 after convicting the father of two for removing trees without a licence at Conga, Ruan, Co Clare, between 1 September 2018 and 30 November 2018.
Counsel for the Minister for Agriculture, Thomas Wallace O’Donnell BL, told the court that the Department’s own estimate is that 40,000 trees were felled.
Mr O’Donnell told the court: “The Department views this case as very serious.”