Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Challenges for the Forestry Sector: Discussion
Mr. Simon White:
For anybody who cannot grasp that, when I started farming in 1974 there were elm trees everywhere. There are no elm trees except in a little area in Kerry.
Elm trees are extinct. They were taken out by the Dutch elm disease. This is ash dieback and ash will be extinct unless we find a solution. The idea that we will be able to plant immune ash is a little bit far-fetched. If it does happen, it will be 20 or 30 years from now and not tomorrow.