Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for letting me in. I am also not a member of this committee but I am from County Clare. I know these guys have been discussing the issue of the 21 farmers affected in Cratloe.

I recently had a meeting with the local IFA representatives - Mr. Tom Lane, Mr. Tom Holmes, Mr. Michael Davern and Mr. Darren Sheehy. At that meeting they outlined to me the awareness that there was bark beetle in Cratloe. What engagements has the Department had with those farmers, as I am not aware of much engagement? No farmer in my constituency should be out of pocket because of what seems to be a lack of prevention and lack of oversight, as the witnesses have mentioned, in terms of biosecurity. This is a major concern for Clare because, as the committee will be aware, 20% of Clare is forested and the county has the largest plantation of ash trees. It is a major concern for the farmers there.

The ash dieback issue has been spoken about at length. The recommendations have been available since September and four months later, the implementation plan has not been forthcoming. For many farmers in Clare, there is a lack of confidence now because of the management of the ash dieback and also the more than a decade that has gone by. It has been no good to them. It has diminished their confidence in being able to address the bark beetle issue as well and also is affecting farmers going into forestry, which is also a major concern.

On the questions that I have, people have pushed these guys on the timeline of the temporary suspension and the review. With the acknowledgement of the lack of the implementation plan, that is where the anticipation is coming from.

Mr. Gorman himself mentioned "the political will". I suppose it is just a trend that we are seeing when it comes to forestry as we know how long it took for the forestry programme to come forward even though most would feel it is not fit purpose as it is.

Another part of the ash dieback issue that I wanted to touch on is that there is ash dieback on local authority land, especially on the roadside, and that this is causing hazardous conditions for the public, in particular, given the inclement weather that we face now. It is a major concern. The local IFA representatives explained to me that we need the Department to instruct the local authorities to remove them, and we have not had that so far. I would be grateful if the witnesses could touch on that issue as to why we are not getting that kind of joined-up thinking from the Department to local authority level and the fact that it has experienced significant delays as well.

Mr. Fleming mentioned the €30 billion-----