Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I completely take the Minister of State's point. This Bill is about encouraging farmers to grow forests and to make sure they grow a crop, can harvest that crop and can take the profits therefrom, just like farmers in any other sector. I believe the Minister of State and I, as well as the majority of people, are in agreement that this should be facilitated to the greatest extent possible. However, as for comparing the crop grown by farmers who plant, harvest and grow that crop with a wood, I live in east County Clare, which was completely afforested up to the 1850s. The destruction of which Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke happened at the time of the Industrial Revolution and, consequently, there is very little that can be done about it now. However, small pockets of that ancient woodland remain and to compare those pockets of ancient woodland and those ancient oaks that are hundreds of years old with the Sitka spruce and the other commercial forests that are also grown in large quantities in east County Clare does not make a huge amount of sense from an environmental perspective. A greater degree of protection is required for those ancient forests than is the case for the farmers who are growing wood commercially as an agricultural venture. Before Report Stage, the Minister of State might ascertain whether it is possible to differentiate between the two to ensure the least interference possible with those who are growing a crop to harvest as a commercial venture, as well as to protect habitats, as required under the habitats directive, in the case of those who happen to own a piece of land containing trees that are hundreds of years old.