Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As was outlined, the sector has taken a fairly heavy hit from the storm, with some companies facing losses of between €50,000 and €100,000. I understand that the Minister is talking about introducing a scheme and I would ask him to outline the details of same. I fear that it is a capital scheme whereas the biggest losses these companies have suffered is in terms of product losses and labour costs incurred in making repairs and so forth. Trees worth between €500 and €3,000 were lost but these will not be covered in any capital scheme. Support is needed in this area because if these businesses go to the wall, gardeners, landscapers and local authorities will end up importing trees from other parts of Europe. That will leave us exposed in the context of bio-security. Has the Department examined the bio-security implications of this against the background of Dutch elm disease, ash die back and so forth? This must be considered in the context of us losing our tree growing sector.

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