Mr. Simon White:

The first issue raised by the Senator is that of engagement. The engagement we have had to date is that we have been brought into a room and allowed to express our views, but we have not been heard or listened to. Our views have not been taken into consideration in the designing of schemes that we have stated will not work or address the problem. I refer to our engagement with individual foresters and inspectors coming into farms. It is a nightmare for anybody currently involved with forestry in general and not just those affected by ash dieback.

The Senator asked about the RUS. There are many things that are not addressed within the scheme. He referred to the option of going back to grassland. For many people, that it is the most viable option open to them. It is not currently allowed. It should be considered and introduced. In terms of the management of the scheme, people are categorised according to the growth of their plantation. That is incredibly unfair because it means that those who have the youngest plantations, with some years of premium still to be paid on them, have lost the least because they have lost the least amount of growth of their plantation. They are being helped to replant. However, those whose trees and plantations are older and who have invested a great deal of time, effort and money into them are experiencing significant losses. A capital value should be placed on such plantations at this stage. Many such plantations have been totally wiped out and many of those affected, such as Mr. O'Connell and me, are not eligible for any supports except under the woodland improvement scheme, which was not designed to deal with this issue.

A point that must be put across is that we did not bring in this disease. It never should have got into the country. It was rampant in Europe from the late 1990s. The forest service knew that was the case. Ash trees should have been propagated in this country and planted, but trees were imported and that brought the disease in. We are an island nation and should have applied tighter security in order to keep it out. So doing is the responsibility of the forest service but the threat is not being taken seriously. There is a risk of other invasive species being brought in because we cannot cut down the timber that is currently needed for timber processing. The whole system is such a mess that the only option is to import timber. However, the dangers of so doing are right in front of us and we do not have a system to protect us.