John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the absence of our spokesman, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, who, I understand, is in Northern Ireland on business. Recently, he launched a detailed policy document on the future of Coillte, setting out a bold new vision for Irish forests. I expect he will be in the House on Thursday to give the Minister of State some of his wisdom on this matter. Fianna Fáil welcomes steps to strengthen environmental protection of our forests but has some specific concerns with the Bill. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State has said he will listen to suggestions from this side of the House and perhaps take amendments on Committee Stage.

The Government should be more ambitious in the legislation and set out new targets for afforestation. Licensing laws should be reformed to ensure they are not an unnecessary burden on forest owners. Beyond this, the Government should address continuing taxation disincentives in forestry. I realise this is not within the brief of the Minister of State or this Bill but perhaps he could discuss the matter with the Minister for Finance to ensure that some of the disincentives in place in the taxation area at present are removed.

As the Minister of State noted, forestry plays an important role in the rural economy but remains underutilised and underdeveloped by comparison with our European neighbours. The Irish forestry industry was worth €673 million in 2010. Direct output in Ireland's wood product sectors, panel board mills, sawmills and other wood-product sectors was €1.3 billion in 2010 and the total value, direct and indirect, to the economy in the three wood-processing sectors was €2.2 billion. More than 12,000 people are employed in the forestry industry throughout rural Ireland. In my part of the country there are many people employed in the many small sawmills and some of the major industries in the south east and I imagine it is same throughout the country.

Unfortunately, Ireland remains the least afforested country in Europe with only approximately 11% of Ireland covered in forests compared to the European average of 35%. Demand for timber is due to expand in the coming decade while Irish timber already has 5% of the United Kingdom market. Opportunities exist to expand this greatly in the future.

The Bill should be expanded in its ambitions for the forestry sector and include specific economic objectives of supplying the Irish timber industry. Steps to protect the delicate ecological balance of our woodlands are welcome measures but should be strengthened with a feasible economic basis. The key economic role of the forestry industry and indigenous timber mills must be recognised and expanded in the coming years under the framework of the legislation. The Bill should set specific targets for the industry relating to afforestation levels in the coming years.

The licensing rules outlined by the Bill should be reduced to alleviate the burden of red tape and forestry management. Many of the farmers to whom the Minister of State referred who have moved into the forestry sector in recent years complain continually about the level of red tape in the sector at present. It is welcome that the Minister of State is anxious that some red tape, as well as some other areas that have hindered the development of the forestry industry, will be removed. Irish forestry also is penalised by the burden of the high earner section of the Finance Act 2006, which undermines tax incentives for the industry. Farmers may be burdened with paying a massive amount of tax on a crop that takes more than 40 years to bring to fruition. This also is an issue that many growers have raised with me recently and I am sure the Minister of State will take up this matter with the Minister for Finance to assess how it can be incentivised in a different and better way because it certainly is not doing so at present. Government policy must reflect the fact that forestry is an investment that involves an unusually long period before it pays off. This is a unique investment and looking beyond this Bill and towards the finance Bill 2014, the Government should reflect on adequate taxation measures to incentivise the sector.

The policy document on Coillte recently launched by Fianna Fáil set out an ambitious target for an afforestation rate of 20,000 ha per annum up to 2020, as well as the increased recreational use of the woodlands. I understand the financial position that may be behind this, because I served in that Department for quite some time and there was a continuous battle with the Minister for Finance of the day to get adequate moneys available to meet the premium payments, to meet the planting grants and so on. I sometimes felt the Ministers for Finance of the day did not understand the need to expand forestry or the opportunities that existed in that area for job creation and for increased production. I expect the Minister of State probably will have the same problems when dealing with the present Minister for Finance but hopefully there will be a dramatic increase in afforestation in the coming years.

Fianna Fáil welcomes the steps to protect the delicate balance of the woodlands. Forests play a key role in maintaining biodiversity and in combating climate change. The central position of forests in the fragile national and global ecosystems must be protected with effective Government regulation and recognition of the need for environmentally friendly and economically sustainable forests. In this light, the decision not to sell Coillte is a welcome move by the Government, which must now reassess its attitude to the area and broaden its ambitions for the long term. At the time, there was major concern regarding the possible selling off of Coillte and I am glad commonsense prevailed with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and other Ministers and that this did not take place. I believe Coillte has a key role to play in the forestry sector in the future. However, the company may not be doing enough at present to develop the forestry industry and hopefully the Minister of State will be able to kick a few shins in this regard to encourage the company to become more proactive regarding increased afforestation. While serving as Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, I always had an issue with Coillte concerning its refusal to replant. I am aware that Coillte has a problem with premium payments in this regard and that Europe would not allow the company to claim such payments. However, Coillte forests certainly are being cut down and are not being replanted, which is a cause for concern. It is worth noting that 45% of the marked ways around the country are on Coillte properties and were rural recreation within the forestry industry to be developed fully, experts state there would be a potential to create approximately 3,000 jobs nationally. Coillte already has conducted substantial work in the area of recreation, which has significant untapped potential. It started with walking, including long-distance walks and rambling, after which it got into activities such as mountain cycling for which defined tracks are provided. Tremendous potential exists for further development in this area by Coillte and the Bill should encompass broader ambition for the industry to expand its remit over the recreational aspect of Irish woodlands. On Committee Stage, the Minister of State might again consider how it can become more actively involved.

As I noted, Deputy Ó Cuív's policy would see Coillte increase net afforestation efforts throughout Ireland and in particular in rural areas that are considered unemployment black spots. An opportunity exists to increase the level of afforestation and Fianna Fáil's policy document suggests a target of 20,000 ha per annum between 2014 and 2020, thereby bringing Ireland's percentage of forest cover closer to the European Union average. Such afforestation should be funded as far as practicable through Coillte's profits. As the Minister of State is aware, Coillte makes substantial profits. While successive Ministers for Finance have tried to get their hands on the pot without being too successful in recent years, perhaps this is an opportunity in which those profits could be used for afforestation and to guarantee supply and profit in the future. New afforestation projects would have an increased density to maximise economic yields for the company and for farmers. This is an issue for farmers and companies in the forestry sector, who believe the allowable density is far too low and should be increased. The Minister of State, with his officials, might also consider how this could be brought about.

In addition, I understand that NAMA is in possession of thousands of acres across the country at present. While I do not know what the agency will do with it or what plans it has for it, there certainly will be very little commercial or residential development to judge by what is happening at present. Perhaps there is an opportunity for some of this land to be planted into the forestry family and I ask the Minister of State to give consideration to this possibility. As I stated, the Irish Timber Growers Association, ITGA, has called on the Minister for Finance to amend the prevailing position in which the income on a forest is taxed as a single event rather than the culmination of years of investment and effort. One must recognise the particular nature of forestry and the decades long efforts that are put into it. As I mentioned, the Minister of State should ask the Minister for Finance to give serious consideration to such an amendment.

One of the most extraordinary untold stories of the collapse of the construction industry has been that none of the major timber operations has gone out of business or has closed down, which constitutes great news for rural Ireland. The big mills are all intact, the small mills, many of which are located near to where I live, are competing and are working to full production, as are Coillte's factories. The collapse of the construction industry potentially could have destroyed the indigenous forestry industry, which sold directly into it. However, the successful retention of the timber mills was the direct result of high level co-operation between Coillte, as the biggest supplier of saw log, and the milling industry. The industry was able to break into the British construction market and replace lost local sales through sales abroad. This Bill must outline specifically the remit of the Irish forestry industry in supporting local timber mills and the employment they provide currently, as well as the increased opportunities that may arise through further developments and further expansion into the United Kingdom market. I am informed by millers that tremendous opportunities exist in both the United Kingdom market and other markets in Europe. However, they may require grant aid to provide the type of timber that is required and to increase the potential in this regard. It will be important for the Minister of State to consider this point because of the underlying opportunities in this sector.

The felling licence issue has been a bone of contention for quite some time but I note that during the boom years, many developers in the industry did not bother about felling licences. They simply moved in, knocked down forests or woodlands and built massive housing projects. It was extremely difficult to do anything about it because usually the complaint reached the Department only after the trees had been knocked down.

I welcome that the Government is tightening up on the requirements for the granting of felling licences while also making the system more flexible. I hope that the process will not become too bureaucratic or full of interference by officialdom. Having heard the Minister of State's contribution, I believe the Government is moving down the route of making the process more flexible and helpful for the punter. I welcome the Bill. It is moving in the right direction and we will bring forward some amendments to it on Committee Stage.

The Minister of State and I come from two prominent hurling counties. That was certainly the case in the past although not at present. I am sure Clare's success will not last forever. We will want hurleys in Wexford again and the lads in Kerry might be involved as well. Many hurley makers have put forward the point to me that if disease is found in one ash tree in the forest, the whole forest cut down. The Minister of State might address that point in his reply. They consider it is a waste of ash timber for the hurley-making industry. Many of them have to import ash timber from other countries. They believe that 99% of the ash trees in the forestry are probably okay and question the reason huge tracts of the forest are removed. A similar problem arose when I was in the Department when brown rot was discovered in the potato crop. Fields of potatoes were destroyed initially because of a panic reaction, but eventually things settled down and only the potatoes in the field where the brown rot was discovered were removed and not the full crop of potatoes or all the potatoes a farmer had stored in the shed. That serious concern regarding the removal of all ash trees has been raised with me. I was disappointed to hear that the disease has been found in our own ash trees given that up to now it was found mostly in imported ash. There is a need for broader thinking in the Department on this issue. Naturally we do not want to see the disease spread but perhaps there is not a need to remove all the trees in a planation as is currently the decision of the Department.

I welcome the Bill and Deputy Ó Cuív will put forward some amendments to it on Committee Stage. I am sure the Minister of State, if he considers them worthwhile, will be only too willing to take them on board. As he stated, he may be able to work out the best practice for the forestry industry as we move forward by having continuous discussion with the stakeholders.

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