Ms Mary McCormack:

No. That will change the whole landscape of the country because a certain percentage of people have ash but most forestry that was planted in the 1990s has Sitka spruce as its basis. It is a commercial crop for building and so on. When that is wiped out, I do not know what rate it will progress at, but it is like another slap and the other cheek being turned. The IFA pleaded with the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, to ban the importation of Scottish timber until it had a chance to review it. He refused because, he said, he could not ban it in the interests of the movement of goods. This timber is from Scotland, which is not in the EU. I do not know where the Minister's priorities lay. Europe is blamed for many things but Scotland is outside the EU. Europe cannot dictate to us that we have to allow the importation of Scottish timber. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, said just two weeks ago that pests and disease know no boundaries. She was dead right.