William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the end of the day, they would have nothing now only a load of pulp. That is what the ash dieback has done to any of the trees that I see around me. I do not know the Minister of State can convince anybody that any money that was mentioned here today would satisfy them. There is no answer whatever for the poor unfortunate people who planted ash in good faith thinking they were doing good for the country, the local countryside, heritage and everything, and what happened? Ash dieback came in and no one ever knew. They knew about fire risk or, say, storm risk but by God, they never knew there was ash dieback. There is no compensation, none, that would compensate for that. That is my first point. I feel sympathy for farmers who were caught up in it.

As bad as that is, now they are aggrieved because they cannot put the land back in. I know people who have done it and the only way to bring land back is this. If I wanted to put land back in Laois, I could buy land in Leitrim or somewhere, replant it there and take out the forestry on my own farm in Laois or whatever. That is the rule of thumb.

Does the Minister of State honestly believe, looking at me, that it is fair a farmer cannot get out of it once he has signed up to get into it? Everybody should be allowed to get out of something. There has to be an opt-out clause no matter what you do. Take the Minister of State's instance. Take his late father, Jackie. He was tied up with Fianna Fáil and if he could not get out of it, it would never have been able to run with Fianna Fáil and neither the Minister of State nor his brother Danny would be here today. I just want to make the point