Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion before the House. I am fully committed personally and as a public representative to achieving the target of 18% cover by 2050. We are currently at a figure of 11%. I agree with Deputy Eamon Ryan's assertion that we need a diversity of broadleaf and native species, rather than the route on which we are currently.

I am from the north west of the country, where many local communities are concerned about over-afforestation, particularly in counties Leitrim and Donegal and parts of County Cavan, as the Minister of State is well aware. I ask him to engage with the Save Leitrim organisation on a continuing basis. Progress can be made on this issue. In the context of stripping out the bureaucracy in dealing with felling licences and other issues referred to by Deputy Cahill, we need to ensure local communities are consulted. They do not want to be left in the dark, which is what is happening to some small communities. I do not want this to be misinterpreted as me being against forestry, but the people of County Leitrim matter and we must be cognisant of the needs of such areas. People have a right to light which needs to be protected.

On sustainable farming methods, farmers are happy to get involved in forestry in areas which are not over-afforested. However, the payment or incentivisation method needs to be addressed. Planting a smallholding or a part thereof in the north west of the country may provide a windfall for the farmer's grandchildren or great grandchildren in 35 years's time but it will not pay for the education of the farmer's children. We need to rethink our approach to the matter in order to give people viable alternatives. There are 80,000 struggling suckler cow farmers. If the Government wants them to engage in forestry in areas that are not over-afforested, they will have to be incentivised in the form of an annual income.

I would like the Government to consider introducing regulations to address a practice that is not being done, either by Coillte or private operators in forestry, and to ask those people to engage and facilitate a sweeping for ticks on an annual basis and the assessing of those ticks for infection in terms of carrying Borrelia bacteria, which are at the root of much Lyme disease that we hear about in our constituencies.

We all need to get with the programme for forestry. We need to diversify what we are planting in the way Deputy Eamon Ryan set out by stripping out the bureaucracy and including local communities' views in terms of those areas that are over-afforested. We need to rethink financing to incentivise people and to do what we can to sweep for ticks annually to get accurate data on Borrelia bacteria-carrying infected ticks throughout the country.

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