Mrs. Maura Duggan:

I am absolutely mystified by the resistance of the Minister and Department to respond to the problem with the ash dieback disease. In a sense, we are almost like the canary in the coalmine, in that we are the vanguard. We are the first in the forestry sector to be seriously affected by disease. The poor response, really the lack of a response, to our circumstances should be extremely worrying for anyone thinking about going into farming. I think the Minister and the Minister of State may not fully appreciate the impact the failure to address ash dieback will have on confidence.

Historically, Dutch Elm disease came in and, unbelievably, eliminated all the trees. Then came this ash dieback disease. We look around and it is impossible to imagine that every ash tree in the country, more or less, is going to be dead. We have been meeting about this issue for years and our concerns have been ignored. We are now in a situation where we are looking at a new afforestation programme. There is the noise about the bark beetle, which is a real risk to the remaining spruce trees here and, again, the Department is blind to the potential risks and ignoring them, thinking that monitoring is some kind of form of prevention. I refer to monitoring bark on trees coming in from Scotland, the country that has this affliction.

How, then, can anybody think about planting trees in future when they look at us and see what is happening with ash dieback and the negligence and ill-treatment we have suffered? Deputy Fitzmaurice wondered what was going to happen now.

As to our position, we are not going away. We are extremely frustrated by the lack of action but we are not giving up on this campaign. Anybody I know who has ash trees or who asks me whether they should plant, I will definitely be saying "No". I will be telling them that the Department will make them responsible, tie their hands so they are unable to do anything about it, and it will then be their fault and their problem. That has actually been written down. That is part of the new afforestation scheme and is now part of ours. I am mystified as to why the Department does not recognise the writing on the wall for any future forestry programmes.

Deputy Fitzmaurice asked what we would like to plant if we were to replant. I will speak about my own circumstances. I planted spruce and ash. In my naivety at the time, I did not realise that ash was such a valuable crop but my forester told me my land was not good enough for oak, so I have 1 acre of oak and the rest is ash. My ash trees are dead but I planted them as a commercial crop. I cannot imagine what I will plant, except for spruce, that will return my land to some sort of commercial use. It was deemed that ash was the only hardwood that would grow on the land, so it is useful for me to go planting oak because it would not be the right tree in the right place. For many of us, spruce will be what we might consider replanting in the future but everybody is different. As Mr. White said, for some people this may mean a return to farmland depending on their circumstances. What can be grown on land that has been destroyed by ash is a question. We will not be giving up this campaign. If we have to, we will come back again. Our views will be heard. I urge the Minister to take heed of us and to think forward to the consequences for future afforestation by him ignoring us. That is all I have to say.