Mr. Francis Cassidy:

The Deputy has raised a few interesting points. Like many things in life, if one were setting a model, one would not start from here. However, we are at this point. Unfortunately, in the current forestry programme and what seems to be talked about under Project Woodland and what has leaked out from the different agencies, it appears that the status quois going to continue, except under a different name. The trees are only the by-product in the forestry policy in Ireland. The product is the premiums and the tax breaks. It is immaterial what people are planting. They could be planting wind bushes, but it is immaterial. It is all about the tax breaks, the premiums and the pension funds. It has nothing to do with sustainable communities.

The new forestry programme has to have the buy-in of local communities. It must have Kerry, Wicklow, west Cavan, Leitrim and east Clare. Otherwise somebody else will be sitting in a committee room like this five or ten years hence talking about Project Woodland and why it failed. That is the reality. We are not anti-trees. I can bring the members to my home farm and show trees that were planted in 1922 by my grandfather. We love trees, but we hate the Sitka nonsense that is going on. It is isolating the neighbour and cutting out the daylight. That is our problem. We want sustainable communities. We believe passionately in where we come from and in the people in our areas. We are representing them as best we can.

We want to see a better vision for rural Ireland. Forestry has a role in that, but it is not the saviour of Ireland, no more than it is the saviour of the carbon budgets. It is only a small part of it. People and communities are the future. That is where the problem of afforestation can be solved. The Minister of State can talk all she likes about different aspects of the afforestation programme, buy-in and the like, but unless one meets and talks to the communities and there are reasonable policies, one will not have the communities. One will only alienate them.