Paraic Brady (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on the start he has made. With the recent storm, we have seen one of the greatest disasters that has ever hit the State. It has left two and a half years of timber on the ground. The Minister of State has got off to a very good start in dealing with people and meeting them on the ground, face to face.

Regarding the planting of new forests, I put a proposal to the Minister of State that we would not allow new forests along the edge of roadways. It has now come to my attention that a number of new forests have been mounded, one in Coole only last week. That is a State forest. It is mounded right up to the edge of a road for planting. If we have learned anything, we should at least have a corridor where the forest must stay back from the roads. When those trees grow, they shade the road and they are a hazard when frosty weather comes. If the wind blows, the trees end up on the road. I hope there will be some regulations introduced on that.

One of my colleagues raised this issue. Local authorities are best placed to deal with ash dieback. We cannot ask a farmer to do it, although I know it is the farmer's responsibility. There has to be a bit of joined-up thinking between the Road Safety Authority, the Department of agriculture and the forestry services to come up with a scheme to deal with dangerous trees along roadways, of which there are lots throughout Ireland. The local authority notifies the Department regarding these schemes. There is a cost applied for taking them down. The farmer is certainly entitled to pay some part of that cost. If the cost is placed on the farmer, the first thing he will more than likely do is get in a contractor with a digger who will trek down the road and push the trees into the farmer's field. The council will then be on to him that he is in the middle of the road with a digger and there is a health and safety issue. There has to be a safer way of doing this whole scheme. There has to be a little bit of joined-up thinking between all the parties regarding safety and the ash dieback. I would like the Minister of State to look at that.

We have almost 26,000 ha of windblow. If we got that cleared and planted a quarter of it this year and planted a quarter of it next year, with the 26,000 ha on the ground, we would actually meet our targets if we replanted everything that is wind blown over the next number of years without even looking at any new scheme. I would like the Minster of State's thoughts on that.

Forestry is harvested in this country by weight when it is brought into the sawmills. I want to be correct on this. I am delighted to say that the Glennon Brothers is part of a Longford company that employs Longford people. It is also in Bandon in Cork and Scotland. We are very proud of the company, which sponsors our local GAA club and has supported jobs in Longford. Timber is paid for by weight. In Europe, it is paid for by volume when harvested off the head of the machine. Why are we the only country that does this? It is a very simple matter. The legislation only needs a tweak. I know the Minister of State's officials say it is not. In Europe, it is paid for off the head. We are the only country in the European Union that does not pay for it off the head. I will let the Minister of State in because we need to have an explanation of that.