Mr. Brian Rushe:

The forestry service and different Departments have lofty figures in terms of the targets, including a figure of 8,000 ha for farmers but they need to get from two to three and then from three to four. The way to make forestry happen for farmers is to remove those barriers that we spoke about that simply put farmers off. We need to make an enterprise attractive for a farmer. How do we make it attractive? We make it economically attractive and we remove the bureaucracy. The replanting obligation is a massive barrier but it is not spoken about enough. I have no doubt that if we removed the replanting obligation we would bring a lot of farmers back in. The fear is, because farmland is multigenerational, that farmers could be signing the next generation or the one after it into forestry. We need to remove that obligation and the bureaucracy around the licensing, which is a nightmare, frankly. As has been said previously, it is not fit for purpose. We must also make it economically attractive. Strong supports are needed. When considering the biodiversity payments Mr. Fleming spoke about in terms of the 20% broadleaf and 15% of the biodiversity ground, we are justified in looking for an ecosystem service there. Farmers are taking land - up to 35% of their ground - and putting it into something that is not economically viable. That is the bottom line. Farmers are not going to get a return for that but all of society is benefiting from that broadleaf. Farmers are rightly justified in looking for strong ecosystem payments for that to make it attractive. That is key.