Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the issues in my area with forestry is one I have raised before with the Minister and the Minister of State. In County Leitrim 17% of the land is under forestry. I believe the figure is probably closer to 20%, given the amount of land that has been planted recently. Afforestation, in itself, is fine. It is productive and generates an income for many people who plant their land. However, the difficulty is that in rural communities it just wipes out the people and we end up with no people living in an area. When I look out my front door, I note that there is probably one small section of the horizon in which no trees meet the skyline. I once counted nine families who were living on the farms in question but no one is living on them anymore. This means the rural community is deprived of life. For every 1,000 acres of land planted, one long-term sustainable job is created. A tree that takes 35 or 40 years to grow is cut into timber in 20 minutes in the sawmill. The labour intensity associated with forestry is so low that there is no work available. Although there is an income for the person who owns the land or, in many cases, the companies that buy it - that is another issue - afforestation is a total disaster for rural communities and a disaster in sustaining the social fabric of rural life. It is a problem that needs to be examined and dealt with in some way. I am not suggesting we need to slap a ban on forestry or anything like it, but we need to examine its effect on the future of the communities living in the areas in question.

Although afforestation reduces the carbon footprint and has other positive features, it is very negative for the communities that live in the areas planted. Something ought to be done to ensure we can keep rural schools open, rural communities active and the traditions of rural Ireland alive, if we want to cherish it. We have to choose whether we want to maintain it. Afforestation is destroying it where I live. This issue needs to be dealt with.

On land designation, TAMS and the new sheep fencing scheme, farmers are contacting me to state that, because their land has been designated, they are not allowed to fence it. Therefore, their sheep are getting out onto the road and the county council is writing to them to ask them to fence their land because the sheep are causing accidents. One sector is stopping people from fencing the land, while another is offering grants for fencing. Some common sense needs to come into play in this regard, particularly where roads run through commonages. A way needs to be found to square the circle.

I have a number of issues with the level of spending on agri-environmental schemes which include the REPS and the AEOS. I wonder whether the funding for the REPS and the AEOS comes from the current or the previous CAP envelope. This goes back to my point about the beef data and genomics scheme, that should the scheme run until 2020-21 and 2021-22, there would be no underspend on the projected spend under the current CAP programme. The treatment of the REEPS and the AEOS is instructive in that regard.

In the reply to the parliamentary question I tabled last week it was stated that of the €52 million that had been allocated for the REP scheme, just over €30 million had been paid out in 2015. Of the €20 million allocated for the GLAS scheme, just €11 million had been paid out. However, there was an overspend of €8 million under the AEOS. Is it expected that there will be underspend this year and, if so, how will the money be utilised otherwise? Will the Minister indicate his intentions on how to get more farmers involved in the GLAS scheme? Does he expect the number of farmers participating in it to reach the 50,000 mark?