Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

Forestry involves a commitment of 30 to 40 years on the part of landowners. At the simple stroke of a pen not only has the Minister for Finance and his Cabinet colleague, Deputy Smith, in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food taken money from farmers' pockets but they have simultaneously undermined their ongoing commitment to future afforestation because there is a fear that the viability of forestry as an income source could be further undermined at another stroke of the pen. That is penny wise and pound foolish.

The Minister of State, Deputy Killeen, is aware that there are legal penalties and sanctions for a failure to meet our obligations signed up to at European level to reduce our carbon emissions. Forestry represents the easiest and fastest way to meet our carbon sequestration requirements. In the budget the Minister has dealt a body blow to the industry and the commitment of farmers as landowners to planting and meeting future targets.

Deputy Sheahan referred to the legal principle of legitimate expectation. People who entered into a commitment to forestry as a land use measure did so on the basis that they expected their level of income to be predictable for the period of the grant - up to 20 years - but that has been undermined. Has the Department taken legal advice on the matter?

I seek clarity from the Minister of State on another matter on which there is uncertainty. Is it the intention of the Government that income from forestry which up to now was tax exempt will be subject to the various levies introduced in the budget by the Minister for Finance? That would be a further breach of contract between the Department and farmers and sound the death knell of the afforestation programme. The Minister should be concerned that the target set in the programme is hopelessly behind schedule.

What the Minister has done is penny wise and pound foolish. There are other areas in which funding could be saved. Closing the stable door after the horse has bolted is something at which the Government has become adept. A round table of the various interest groups has been convened to give the Government cover on this issue and it would have been preferable for the Minister to have embarked on this. With this precipitative action he has dealt a fatal blow to the future of the forestry industry which is critical to our economic future.

See this speech in context