Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. We have a small attendance today. Before I allow Deputy Carthy to ask his questions, I refer to the Minister's remarks on forestry. He stated, "This can largely be attributed to a fall-off in interest by farmers, which has been the trend in recent years." I fundamentally disagree with that. We got various estimates for the number of licences that are being processed through the system, whether for planting, clear felling or thinning. The committee was told there were 1,900 licences in the system but it has transpired that there are 4,000.

The Department has also prohibited planting on land designated as unenclosed or on land to which changes have been made. I do not feel the issue is a lack of farmer interest at all. It is just plain bureaucracy that has caused the huge fall off in the amount of planting that is taking place. We are only at one quarter of the target of 8,000 ha set out in the programme for Government. We will probably only hit one quarter of that this year but to attribute the reduction to a fall off in interest among farmers is fundamentally incorrect.