Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Whatever way the twain shall meet, I am delighted he enjoyed his time in Cashel at the weekend. That is not to say I am keeping tabs on him but Tipperary is a small place. He knows a bit about Tipperary also. We make our mark on places.

I did not mention the ash trees and the use to which we put them. In the main I am speaking to the Bill. I remember as a buachaill óg - I was about nine years of age - I had two neighbours who were brilliant carpenters. As I wanted a hurley, we got an ash butt out of the ditch. They had to cut it, take it home and cure it like a side of bacon. It had to be cured for a particular period of time. It was a work in progress for about two years. When I got it, we hit some balls with it and used it on more things than the ball. There were no penalty points or yellow cards at that time. In terms of the clash of ash, we have gone back a little but the Kilkenny lads are there now. It goes around, thank God, and I salute the men of Clare. Its sawmill in Scarriff has diminished somewhat, which is a pity.

I will return to the Bill rather than ramble through the woods like Patrick Kavanagh and his poetry. In regard to the export of Christmas trees, I heard the report on the radio this morning. I have witnessed it and have been involved in the removal of Christmas trees from the land in my own business, but one does not think of the impact and that they are going to far away places in Europe. Many private Christmas tree growers, including some from Coillte, export Christmas trees. I thank Coillte which usually provides two or three trees for our village, a community house and our school. We have always got them courtesy of Coillte. We got them legitimately in the past from the foresters for community gain.

I am delighted Coillte was not sold off, although in recent years it has been run down. I recall the Irish Forestry Service and the men who worked in it and the pride they had in their work. While driving on the road one could see its entrances, timber railings, styles and gates, all of which were painted. In due course it was transferred to Coillte. Like everything else, the fences have become run down. It is impossible to be a sheep farmer adjacent to a Coillte plantation. As with any plantation, whether a private plantation or a Coillte plantation, one has to depend on one's neighbours. Good neighbours are better than family. If one does not have good neighbours in terms of fencing, one is in trouble. Some years ago Coillte appeared to have adopted the attitude of just fencing until such time as the plant was established and then letting the place go to hell. If a farmer's sheep strayed, it was tough. In some cases they have been taken to the pound. That is not necessary and is not good for spirits. Farmers are needed to keep watch in the event of people wandering in and dropping a substance that might light and set fire to the forest. We have seen too many forest fires.

We need good relationships and Coillte must be reminded to go back to its base. I know it is all about money but we must never forget that it is a community initiative and people have to live alongside forestry. It should respect that and keep back from the road and watercourses. We have had instances in the past where local authority watercourses were damaged by the carelessness of contractors operating for Coillte. Respect is a two-way street. While I have praised Coillte for what it does in engaging with communities, in some areas they do not and just go in and out. There are some contractors who work for Coillte - I have met this in this building and elsewhere - who have very sad tales of not getting their pound of flesh and not being properly dealt with over the years.

I saw the document, serving those who serve the public, in which a merger of Coillte and Bord na Móna has been mooted. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, is more au fait with this than me. Following a merger, pressure will immediately fall on Coillte to provide wood biomass for Bord na Móna's electricity generation operation, which is required by regulation to guarantee that biomass products make up 30% of 300,000 tonnes of its fuel by 2015. It would be impossible to meet the demands for biomass in Bord na Móna's peat burning power station without compromising more than 100 jobs in two Coillte panel board processing plants, one in Clonmel and one in Waterford. Timber from Coillte forests also supports many jobs in the private and wood products sectors and fulfil an ever increasing demand for firewood. We have to make haste slowly. Far be from me to lecture the Minister of State, but we have to be very careful that what we might do to meet our greener obligations does not adversely impact on supply to the other people I mentioned in my own county and elsewhere. There is no point in a merger of two large companies if it has a devastating impact on the town of Clonmel and Waterford City. Goodness know Waterford has suffered enough in the past. We must be mindful of that.

The Bill is a reasonably modest attempt to regulate the area but as with all Bills we need to be mindful of the small print. The Minister of State would be well aware of flooding and, in fairness, flood defences have been put in place in Clonmel at enormous cost. They have not been tested but we think they are successful.

With the change to heavy machinery, roads can be impacted when private or Coillte harvesting takes place, but mainly Coillte.

Whereas the horse could cross lines along the side of the hill, the tracks made by this machinery go up and down and when heavy rain occurs, there is enormous flooding onto the roads. Sector guidelines must be in place for the felling of large areas because it is doing untold damage to country roads and bridges. There is always lots of debris left in the wood after the extraction of trees and this debris flows along and blocks bridges. It has blocked bridges and done severe damage. In some case it has swept away bridges. I know we are expecting a new treatment plant any day. I hope the Minister of State will announce it for Burncourt which faces significant issues at the moment because it flows off the river, bushes and brambles. We must be very careful with the sprays that can be used and even the dyes with which they mark the trees because they are all going into the water courses. I am not apportioning blame to anyone. We must be very careful about the different types of contamination that may result from forestry products.

I welcome the Bill. I want good land and marginal land to be treated sensibly and for more to be planted on marginal land. The neighbours, and by that I mean the people in the community regardless of whether they live in cottages or ordinary houses or are landowners, must be respected. It is a two-way street. The environment and heritage projects must be front-loaded as being necessary for tourism. We must handle this with care. Implementation is the key. It must be sensitive and cater for all the needs of rural and urban Ireland in order that when urban people wish to use these amenities, they can do so, leave them as they found them and get valuable recreational opportunities from them, while those of us who must live with them can appreciate them and have the respect of the forest owners, be they private or public.

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