Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I am very concerned about burden on the folio for private farmers planting land who, when they take the first crop away, decide to use the land for farming purposes. They should be given that right because most will stay with forestry. I do not agree with putting a burden on farmers or penalising them for stopping forestry.

I agree with Deputy Ó Cuív about the recreational aspect of Coillte lands, which is important. We can develop it without damaging the crop or affecting it. It will add more to tourism. Coillte are leaving quite a bit of land fallow and not replanting it. In the area I come from, three or four large parcels of land are being left fallow. It is a great loss. For environmental purposes, Coillte will argue it is good but the land was able to produce a good crop of timber over the past 20 or 30 years and it is a pity to see it felled and just lying there. That should not be allowed to happen.