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

We have excellent people working in the Department with regard to safeguarding us from future diseases. I have visited many of these facilities. I have met excellent scientists and eminent people who are working, who carried me into their labs and showed me all types of creatures inside all types of containers. I was frightened at how minute some of them were, thinking of the damage they could do. As a Department, we are very proactive in protecting our present and future crops of trees. The people who supply us with certified trees are excellent.

I have dealt with them for more than 40 years. They do great work. Our imports are very much checked. Surveys of forests are taking place at all times. Coillte is engaged in a very strong programme of monitoring what is going in forests. We have protected zones. We have banned Scottish timber because of the situation there with the beetles. I hope that we have learned lessons from the past.

With regard to the biodiversity of the trees we are planting, as Deputy Cooney knows, there is a 20% obligation for broadleaf trees to be mixed with conifers. We are really on top of this. When it comes to disease prevention and control, we are monitoring, checking and being very prudent about what we are doing to ensure we will not have a situation as we did in the past.