Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Ash Dieback and its Impact on the Private Forestry Sector: Discussion

Mr. Simon White:

Nobody has identified what you should replant it with. We need research to find that out. If you are going to go into the production of broadleafs - if, for example, you want to do maple flooring - you have to put the infrastructure in place. There will have to be factories that will make maple flooring in the end. We have no facilities in place. We are being asked to plant something but nobody knows what the end result will be. If I put my field back to grass, I know that I can cut it, I can feed animals and I can get a return on it. I can make silage. I can make hay. However, if I put it back into trees, I cannot get an income out of it and my children cannot get an income out of it.