Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are probably reading different research. The Minister of State should send his to me and I will send mine to him. John Murray of the Murray Timber Group has gone on record to say:

Sitka spruce, while there seems to be an awful lot of talk about monoculture, is the equivalent of a Friesian cow - that's what it does for the industry. The nearest performer, as a native Irish cow, produces one third of what a Friesian produces - I know the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA ) would be up in arms if they were told to change all of their cows to that.

Mr. Murray may not have intended to do so but he actually nailed what is going on. He is saying that Sitka spruce is a monoculture. It is destructive but it is currently profitable, much the same as in the monoculture of dairy farming, which is destructive but profitable for the time being. The IFA and the timber industry have both told the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine what is what. Any consideration of what is not profitable but which may be good for the future of farming, and any consideration of the value of our surroundings or the world we live in, is completely off the table as long as the agribusiness giants are telling the Department what do.

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