Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, the Minister of State and their officials. I will ask all of my questions now and give them the time to answer. One relates to ash dieback. I have not had the opportunity to read the report in full yet but in terms of the implementation, is there any mention of or reference to roadside trees that are affected by ash dieback, and the costs associated for the affected owners? These people, like those with plantations, are affected through no fault of their own and are now facing major costs or else those trees will be hazards.

The Minister touched on the bark beetle but what contingency plans are in place? The word on the street is that while it might not be documented or acknowledged yet, it is either already in Scotland or it is only a matter of time before it will be. Given what we have learned from ash dieback, the last thing we want is another disease coming in. What contingency plans are there?

On the overall forestry programme, I hope this works. I am trying not to be negative but I want to ask some devil's advocate-type questions. Some might be hypothetical, depending on the answers to others and what the outcome might be. I want to talk about all of the licence applications that are in the system that were blocked and it in for a long time because of the historical licence issue. When the Government announced that there would be a new programme of grants, some people decided to wait for that new programme to begin. Has there been any survey done of the original licence applicants to find out how many of them still intend to go ahead with forestry? How many have not changed their land use plans, moved on to another type of farming or sold the land? How many of the applications that are in the system are real, live options?

There is a major issue with confidence. There is good money for forestry now in comparison to what was available previously but there is also very good money in the leasing of land, especially now with the change to the nitrates derogation. Farmers can do the sums and see that what they would get if they sowed 50 acres of forestry, for example. What they would get from a dairy farmer who needs more land to meet the new derogation requirements over a five-year period is comparable, but they will get their land back in five years and possibly in better condition. They are not committing the land for generations to come. That is something we have to face up to. As good as the money in the forestry programme is, there is a new player now that did not exist when the forestry programme was being designed. It is going to be very hard to get people to buy in. There has to be, as Deputy Fitzmaurice said, a plan B if people are not buying into the programme. What is that plan B?

As was mentioned earlier, our target is 8,000 ha per annum under the climate action plan. The Minister said that target may increase, going forward, as the climate action plan changes. What is plan B under the climate action plan to replace the 8,000 ha if the target is not reached? What happens if we do not hit the 8,000 ha target, never mind increasing it to 10,000 ha or 12,000 ha per annum? What changes will have to be made or what other sectors are going to have to be sacrificed, for want of a better word, to meet the emissions goal that the 8,000 ha target was set out to meet?

My final question is about what happens if this starts to take off and we start meeting our targets. What communications are going on with the contractors? Do we have the manpower needed? Do we have the nursery supplies required to start meeting our planting targets? Based on what has happened over the last number of years, I am aware of a lot of contractors who have now diversified into different sectors because there was nothing happening in the forestry sector. This is especially true on the afforestation side and nurseries did not know when the programme was going to take off. Has the Department been in contact with the relevant players in the sector? Will the manpower and nursery supplies be there if this takes off and we start meeting our targets?