Ms Anja Murray:

Deputy Pringle referred to farm forestry and how Ireland has used second pillar funding. Ireland stopped funding its forestry programme through the rural development programme. It has been exclusively funded with Exchequer funding over recent years. The Environmental Pillar has strong views in this regard. We have many views on the fact that afforestation in Ireland should be funded through the RDP, that Exchequer funding should not be used. We have a number of concerns about some aspects of afforestation and forestry. We would like to see more opportunities for different kinds of forestry such as agroforestry or continuous cover forest system, with more flexibility in those grant systems. The forestry being carried out using the system of clear fell and replant monoculture systems are not necessarily good for the environment. We want the programme to be funded under RDP and we want to see it being more flexible in its approach.