Mr. John O'Connell:

We need action now. We have a Minister who lacks leadership and passion about something that is so important to this country. We are at 11% with our afforestation rate and probably down to 10% now with the loss of ash trees. We are committed to having an afforestation rate of 18% by 2030. Let us imagine when that time comes. Europe will not think twice about imposing a massive penalty on us. This seems to be okay and the Minister appears to be prepared to pay it. We are, though, suffering as a result.

We were ready to take out our trees at the beginning of the summer when the weather was dry. It is now raining and the terrain is impossible to work on. Trees are dying and there is a threat to all of us who work in the area, but we are not allowed to remove the timber. We must apply for a licence, and this takes some time. I am not applying for a licence because it could take me years to get one. We got our permission to plant 30 years ago. Having done research and based on the promotion undertaken by the then Government, we went ahead with this as being a blue-chip investment and an endeavour that would ensure we had something to allow us to provide for ourselves in retirement and something to pass on to our children. Now, there is nothing, only a dead plantation. We are left high and dry. We do not have the money to reinvest and put good money in after bad. I know we took the premiums, but much of that money came from Europe at the time.

There is a lack of passion and leadership here. There is talk about the environment. The Minister talks about wetting bogland. If we were to fly over the centre of Ireland, though, we would see it is all exposed bogland. There is no sphagnum moss there to sequester carbon, and it is being released all the time from that open bogland. It is absolute nonsense.