Mr. Joe Gowran:

In response to the point made by Deputy Carthy, the bulk of the industry needs to move to continuous cover forestry, which involves continual selective thinning rather than the clearfell system we have. What I propose in the context of the protected forest zone would only solve part of the problem. It will, however, solve the most sensitive part, namely, in respect of those areas where the forest service seeks Natura impact statements. That would also eliminate or massively reduce the requirement to treat plants in reafforestation with pesticides, which have appeared in water sampling done by the EPA in recent times. Also, in order to promote a stronger shift to hardwoods, we need more research in respect of hardwood products. Training is required. This links to ash dieback disease. We need more focus on managing existing woodlands, not just broadleaf species but also in the context of thinning conifer crops.

The main way that ash will survive, apart from producing a plant - testing is being done to find a strain of ash tree that is resistant to dieback, which may happen in time - will be through the management of existing woodlands to create conditions for the natural regeneration of ash trees. I cannot give the precise proof on this right now but it is likely that natural regeneration will be more resistant to disease over time. I do not disagree with the 5% survival scenario. By that I mean that only 5% of the ash trees we have now may survive into the future. We must make sure that an amount of the species is encouraged to survive in existing woodlands. That is essentially the point.