Mr. John Reardon:

I planted 20,000 young ash plants on my farm 34 years ago, with a view to having a sustainable business when they matured. Right now, I have nothing. It is gone. They were mature trees. I minded them for 30 years but four years ago, it became obvious that these were dying and management was shut down. There was no more to be done. They are now in a situation where there is 2 m high blanket of briars covering the site and out of the briars are the dead trees. They are absolutely worthless. I asked a contractor what he would charge me to clear the site in such a way that when you put in young saplings, which are only the size of your little finger, that they would be able to grow and pass the test at four years that they are still growing without vegetation. In order to clear that site, when all the trees are taken out and stacked at the roadside, he then has to bring in a thing called a mulcher, which takes a 200 horsepower tractor like Jeremy Clarkson has - the big things - and €10,000 per hectare is what he would charge me. The Department is saying I can have €2,000. That leaves me with a shortfall of €8,000 which, when multiplied by 8 ha is €64,000 that I would have to borrow. After having borrowed that, I am only allowed put in species such as birch, alder and those sort of species. They are not commercial crops. I will never, ever see an income - in anybody's lifetime, grandchildren included - out of those. They will never show an income. It is all for nothing; 34 years' work down the drain.