Mr. Brian Smyth:

Carbon budgeting relates to Ireland's commitments, not Leitrim's commitments. The weight of the commitment that Leitrim has given is the land that has been taken out and planted and continues to be taken out every week. Somebody asked about the numbers. We watch the licensing every day. There is not a single day that there is no licence application and we observe as many of them as we can, and now as many as we can afford to as opposed to anything else. Obviously, that licensing system is still very flawed, but we will continue to use that to make the point. That is what we have done to date. With afforestation felling, the only way to fix the replanting issues is by observing the terms of the felling licences. Unless one does that, one will not fix the issue. It is incumbent on us to look at and observe them and appeal in cases where we believe it is necessary. That is the only thing that has worked to change the system for us so far.

Carbon budgeting is a national issue for which there should be a national plan. For land use, that should be county by county and everybody should have a commitment to planting trees of some sort in their areas, on their farms and in other places where land is owned. The burden of tree planting should not fall to vulnerable rural communities where everybody thinks the land is crap and that we should just plant it and clear the people out. That should not be a just transition to a carbon climate solution. The problem we have is that this is being dumped on us in places such as Leitrim, west Cavan, north Kerry, east Clare and Wicklow.