Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentation. I have a few queries. In their submission they state that they were forced to bring in a person and inform the Department. If they had the ash dieback, and this is by way of educating me, was it not important that they got to the root of it quickly and took out the trees affected? If an area was being taken out, were they told to plant spruce or what was being put back in when the disease was present in trees?

In talking about solutions, the witnesses said to leave some of the trees in place for a while. Is that not dangerous because if there is a disease in trees it could destroy the entire farm? I want to be clear about one aspect. Are the witnesses saying that if they were drawing premiums for five or ten years and then discovered ash dieback disease they would enter a new scheme over 15 years because they would have to opt for spruce? Were they compensated for taking out the existing trees, replanting and carrying out whatever works were associated with that? Will the witnesses explain those to me?