Mr. John O'Connell:

I was recently at a site where hurley butts were being taken out. The stems were going for firewood. One can see the ash dieback. It is obvious in the prong. The spores come in through the leaves and affect the tree from the top down. The top of the tree looks like antlers. One can see the prong and the bare stems protruding from the top of the tree. That is ash dieback.

The timber can be recovered if it is cut down in time, but there is no means of processing it, other than for firewood, which is the only value it has. There will be a glut of firewood on the market because of it. People are concerned about how they can deal with the problem of ash dieback. There are trees that are nearly 18 m tall, and taking them down is a fairly big undertaking. Again, there is-----