Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I have been at various committee meetings previous to this, and it is tough to see them having to come back here with their issues still not resolved. As they said, confidence in the forestry sector and planting trees and so on is totally lost because we cannot believe anything from the Government any more, especially the Minister of State, who, as I have said, does not want a spruce tree to be planted and does not want a tree to be cut down. I do not know what the Minister of State's purpose is at all because she is not helping people. They have been wiped out. I come from a small hurling parish, and we appreciate the clash of the ash as much as Clare people do. Our little club was a hurling club and only ever played football when it got too dark to see the sliotar. We really love the ash, and when we cut down a tree there was a grand fire out of what was left of it and we derived pleasure from that as well as being heated.

It is sad to think the people affected are not being compensated for this disease, which the Department has been blamed for bringing in from abroad. The issue has gone on for so long, and I am 100% in support of the witnesses' cause. I was watching them earlier but had to go up and down for votes and had speaking time and so on. It is terrible to think that this is happening to this sector of our own people, who invested and set aside their land. I hear what Mr. White says about being very careful. There is a lot of talk about this planting of a hectare now and that it is the thing to do. I would say the same thing Mr. White said: people should plant it if they want to do so, but they should not plant with the expectation that they will get any recognition from the Government by way of grants or whatever else. As Mr. White said, if something happens, if the people do something, the Department will look to claw the money back and claim that it is not their land any more but the Department's land. That is what people must realise now when they plant. They do not own the place and, as Mr. White said, it is sold to the Department or the Department is in charge of it then and they cannot do what they want to do with it any more, and that is not right.

The witnesses can rest assured that I will do as much as any other elected representative to help the people affected to get fair play. If the witnesses have to come in again, it will be regrettable. I know that they are all busy and have other things to do and that it is an ordeal to come in here, but we appreciate their coming in and fighting for what they believe in. That is what we are here for as well, to stand up for them and to make the case. We will continue to do that because right is on their side. They deserve to be seen after, and I will do my best like the rest of the people. Thank you, a Chathaoirligh, for allowing me in.