Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 17 April 2024
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate
Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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There is one issue I forgot to mention, regarding the flow of water. Where land is planted, there might be a drain or a river running through it that takes water from the land beside it, but those drains have not been maintained by Coillte over the years. That means there is a backlog because, obviously, where trees are growing, there will be scrub and weeds and grass will be growing. In some cases, there are rivers. If the planting is not done some distance from it, a digger cannot go up along and clean it. I ask Ms Jupp to make sure, while she is the chair, that she will bring that to their attention and that there will be a policy on that such that there will be a working relationship between the farming community and Coillte and we will not be left with a battle going on over a drain or a river that has not been cleaned for years, with farmers not knowing whom to go to, which would be a problem.