Mr. Brian Smyth:

In addition, there is no real land-use plan as to what level of afforestation is acceptable to keep communities viable. A number of years ago University College Cork looked at how the farming euro contributes to the local economy. The farming euro in an economy is much stronger than the forestry euro because of the multiplier effect. If that farm remains open, the farmer is going to the local store, hiring local contractors, and buying diesel and other fuel locally. They are in and out spending money every day of the week, keeping the economy alive. When farmers plant the land, it is a fenced. The grant and some of the first- or second-year premium generally goes to the forestry company to plant and seal it up and nobody goes back near that again for ten years. Many people who are now planting up these farms are not resident and not spending any money in the local economy.

As the drive to plant increases, it is distorting the economy as well as the land market. It is good for everybody that land prices increase but it is when that creates other problems that it becomes a problem in itself. That is what we are concerned about. If ten farms are planted, that is ten families gone for two cycles - 80 years minimum. We are seeing exponential decline because of the drive to plant and because of the State investment in that. In the process of licensing, there is no consideration of trying to keep schools open, etc.

Our submission quoted our local authority in Leitrim. It stated that it now has little impact on the process of planning what is planted or on licensing. The forest roads used to be under the remit of the local authorities but this was removed in 2017. In 2011, plantations became exempted developments. The licensing for felling and replanting are outside the local authorities' remit.

There is no democratic input to the process unless you pay your €20 or €200 for the appeal. The grounds of appeal are so narrow that the considerations that we are explaining today are not examined in that process. This is all driven by public money, and a lot of it is focusing on these areas where there is a perception that the land is so poor that what else would you do with it anyway. It is driving our communities into the ground and that is why we are here today to explain how that happens. That is why we have started observing on these processes.