Mr. Simon White:

We had a Teagasc meeting last night as part of the knowledge transfer programme. The calorific value of trees that are affected by ash dieback was explained. The trees start to disintegrate. The calorific value of those trees, as they disintegrate, is not as good as normal firewood. There is also a problem with fungal infections. The plantations are dying and are then getting invested with fungus. Fungus is getting into the soil. Therefore, if you replant with other trees, those trees will pick up that infection and it will kill them. We are in a situation that if somebody replants, they do a contract with another company to replant, and those people get the payments. If, when the inspector comes to inspect the plants after five years, they are dying of the fungus, like honey fungus, they will not be signed off. The growers are then stuck with a double whammy. Not only will they owe the contractor or the company for planting the trees, but they will also have a compulsion to replant again. It does not make sense.