Mr. Andrew St. Ledger:

A management plan should include support and incentives for farmers and help in achieving the returns being sought from sustainable forest management while balancing the responsibilities to the environment.

Deputy Pringle also asked about the Rio convention. There is a set of forest principles attached to the Rio convention, which Ireland signed up to. The concept of sustainable forest management derives from those forest principles, the aim of which is to balance the social, economic and environmental aspects of forestry for the long-term benefits of all. An SFC certification process is used to verify sustainable forest management in Ireland. Those principles come from the Rio convention.

On the employment figures, while I mentioned the figure of 11,500 earlier, there is room for much more employment. In mentioning that figure I was not trying to challenge the IFA. I believe there is potential for much more employment, as there was in the 1950s in the west of Ireland under the Sean McBride-Bulmer Hobson 10,000 hectare afforestation programme, which preserved the economic life of the west of Ireland.

Senator Comiskey referred to the recreation aspect of forestry. This is also forms part of the Rio forest principles. In other words, there must be benefits to the public. In Switzerland all forests, public and private, are accessible to the public. The Rio convention is enshrined in the Swiss constitution. Its forest strategy and management is dedicated to achieving the forest principles. It is one of the countries in the world that is seriously considering sustainable forest management for economic, social and environmental returns. We could do with studying where it is coming from.

Going back a little in history to 1904, the first recommendation of the committee which considered the reafforestation of Ireland at a time when it had less than 1% coverage was that a shelter belt be implemented along the whole west coast of Ireland, with the benefits that were known for farming, agriculture and communities coming inland. However, that never happened. Only some of the recommendations of that committee, particularly those relating to timber production, were picked up on. It would perhaps be worth revisiting that committee's full report in terms of the different multiple industries that committee believed could help Ireland regenerate its economy, using forestry as a backbone.

On jobs and funding for forestry, there is provision in the rural development programme, by way of EU funding, for forestry. It appears at this stage that Ireland will not avail of this under the next rural development programme. That is an issue. Funding will then have to come from the Exchequer, as has been the case since 2007. As such, there will be less funding available for more narrow policies, namely, timber production and primacy of profit. We will miss out on the opportunity to achieve the other objectives of sustainable forest management. One of the better forest service elements of the native woodlands scheme, namely, conservation, has been dropped. This relates to the management of semi-natural existing woodlands, in which area additional employment could be created. An opportunity is being missed to tick boxes regarding the environmental, social and cultural aspects of forestry.