Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I thank the Deputy for asking the question because there is a very good answer to it. The schemes that are in place are attractive. I would argue this with the Deputy until the cows come home. People have planted the land in the past and been successful. Of course, one could pick the negative side of it. The Deputy could ask about what if the trees fell down or the forestry went on fire. These things can happen and the Deputy is 100% right, but there are also successful stories where people got a good crop of timber, had perhaps 20 years of a tax-free payment, and got good thinnings, a good clearfell and a good weight into their timber with which they were very happy and it suited them. This is what happens in life. Some people work intensively. Perhaps they have cows, so they love milking cows and rearing calves, or they love fattening sheep and lambing sheep. These are people who love whatever they are doing and it is their land. On the other hand, there are people who, maybe because of medical issues or personal reasons, for example, they might not have youngsters coming up with the same attachment to land as they have, might decide that planting trees is the way for them to go-----