Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman. I join with my colleague, Deputy Conway, in welcoming the decision not to sell Coillte. It was part of a large shopping list compiled by the previous Government to be put up for sale to whomsoever wished to buy it. Thankfully, the Government has not been obliged to resort to doing that. However, the question still remains as to what is to be done with Coillte and how will it be managed in a way that will provide a return for the State. It is a question the present Administration will be obliged to answer. The current model clearly has not worked and as a member of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I have attended various meetings at which representatives of the timber industry in Ireland have spoken, as have representatives of Coillte. The acting chief executive officer of Coillte gave the joint committee a highly effective presentation last week, in which he indicated clearly they are finally getting a grip on an organisation that, in respect of management pay in particular, effectively had been out of control for some years under the previous Government. Thankfully, that has been reined in.

I will turn my focus to the Bill before Members. It is timely and certainly is not before its time, as if anything it is extremely late in being brought before Members. Nevertheless, it provides many of the protections called for by my colleague, Deputy Conway, with regard to protecting the forests and trees in particular and in ensuring they are not felled unnecessarily, while at the same time striking a balance and making sure farmers can fell individual small trees if they are less than ten years old, if they are in a hedgerow and if the trunk does not exceed 20 cm in diameter. Effectively, farmers can go about hedgerow cutting.

This, however, brings me to a particular matter, which is that about this time of year, every year, Clare County Council sends out a lot of warnings to farmers across the country but it primarily affects east County Clare, where most of the trees are situated. The council warns farmers, in a highly threatening letter, as Clare County Council generally is not in the habit of issuing non-threatening letters, that particular trees pose a danger It is a county council that specialises in threatening letters and if one does not take seriously the threat, it follows up more quickly than do most county councils with legal action, as a result of which it has a very large legal bill each year. However, that is an issue on which I do not wish to dwell. I do wish to focus on the aforementioned letters, which in my view unnecessarily are sent to farmers, frightening them. As a result of this, a large number of trees from which a branch or something similar could be lopped off are felled instead. It is distressing to many people, farmers included, in County Clare, who drive down roads and see a whole row of beech trees cut down. For example, in Killaloe, which is a very scenic town, Waterways Ireland took it upon itself to fell an entire row of beech trees that were planted around the time of the foundation of the State. There was a housing estate behind them but they now are gone. I travel through other countries - I visited County Wicklow recently - and always take great pleasure in driving to Thurles. As one drives from Clare to Thurles, one travels along a road with a row of beautiful oak trees right beside the road and I think that were this road in County Clare, the county council would have had those trees down a long time ago.

I have raised this matter with Clare County Council and I have been informed it is motivated by concerns for the safety of road-users because the trees pose a risk. Do the trees of Clare pose a unique risk in Ireland or in the world? Is it that Clare County Council has a particular attitude to trees? The number of tree-felling notices issued by the council is alarming to farmers as much as to everyone else. I am very much in favour of devolving power to county councils but sometimes one wonders that if this is the result of devolving power, then maybe devolving power is not a very good thing. What is happening in Clare is in marked contrast to what is happening in the Minister of State's county or in other counties.

I am not against the felling of trees. Trees are sown for a purpose, they grow naturally for a purpose, and they are often felled for a purpose. However, I am against the needless felling of trees and, in particular, the threatening of landowners who then feel forced to cut trees unnecessarily. This is an issue of grave concern to me.

I wish to raise a second issue related to the felling of trees. A large part of County Clare is afforested and the county is the third most afforested county in Ireland in terms of the size of the forest estate and the proportion of the county afforested. Large tracts of land were afforested in good faith by Coillte in the 1950s and 1960s when experiments were being conducted in the development of a new industry. Areas which were unsuited to forestry were also afforested. If Coillte wish to fell those areas and allow them to return to nature, it is obliged to reforest them. The felling of the trees is not economically viable, much less the reforestation. For that reason I welcome the proposal in this Bill that the Minister can vary from the requirement to reforest areas. This is very necessary in some areas. It is very useful to be able to consider individual tracts of lands on their own merits.

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