Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It must be acknowledged that a balance must be struck between the protection of forests and a landowner's ability to retain existing fields in agriculture. It is a tree's natural instinct to colonise open space and if fields are managed less intensively they will become woodland eventually. I recognise the importance of scrub woodland and its role as a reservoir of species and an area of biodiversity. If scrub woodland with trees meets the definition of a forest as described in the Bill, trees will require a felling licence and they are not exempt. The term agro-forestry can be described as the integration and management of trees in conjunction with agriculture to produce multiple benefits. It is not the intention of the Bill to categorise or define scrub as agro-forestry, as that would imply that all such woodlands and habitats would have an element of agricultural production as an objective. Landowners already acknowledge the benefit of trees in the provision of shelter for livestock but they must be allowed to choose if they want a field to become woodland through natural scrub encroachment.

The exemption in this Bill to allow trees less than five years of age to be removed from a field without a licence recognises the importance of agriculture and farmers' requirements in managing fields. I do not accept this amendment.