Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support the motion. I have always been fascinated by forests. They offer a major attraction in that as well as providing timber, they have been an important source of recreation for people. I compliment, in particular, the work done by Coillte during the past 15 years in using the forests in a multifaceted way and ensuring they have been available for many leisure purposes.

It is important we recognise forestry cover and that native broadleaf trees are important but we must not forget the forestry industry and its requirements. The forests, mill companies and so on provide employment in parts of the country that do not have other major sources of employment. In my small area, 200 jobs are directly associated with timber milling. Many towns would like to have that number of jobs. It is a very small community and that employment can be seen the numbers in the schools, the parish, the football teams and so on. The difference it has made can be seen when one compares the demographics with other equivalent areas. It is important we ensure in future that we can keep supplying the mills. We can also help them with something they have done during the past 15 to 20 years, which is to ensure they keep going up the food chain in terms of market quality to ensure they realise the full value for the product they provide.

In the few minutes I have remaining, I will make a few points. I agree with what Deputy McConalogue said and it is vital. We see what I would call incidental natural forestry, particularly hazel and sally, growing on many farms and it is quite common in areas of poor land but the minute it grows it removes a farmer's qualification for the basic payment scheme or the areas of natural constraint payment. There is much talk about carbon sequestration. Natural forestry will sequester carbon just as much as planted forestry established on a scheme with the payment of grants. All we are asking is that provision be made where natural forestry is growing. If one looks across at the valleys in my area, one would see many good trees that have grown during the past 20 to 30 years but farmers are being penalised for allowing that to happen. The Government takes money from them for that, but that issue needs to be tackled.

Another point, which goes to the heart of the Leitrim problem, is that we have become too reliant on large corporate entities for everything. Addressing that would lend itself to farmer participation and keeping the land in farmers' ownership and control. The forestry grants and premia should be front-loaded. In other words, they should be larger and higher for the farmer planter than for the big corporate planter. When the farmer does so he is much more likely to be sensitive to other local needs. He is much less likely to buy up acre after acre causing major disruption in the community. It would also ensure the money is kept local. The Green Party would resonate with me on this as its members would say we should think global and act local. It is important we examine the ownership model and ask ourselves what do we really want to happen. Do we want it owned locally and to have dispersed and diffused ownership or do we want to concentrate all the ownership, as happens in many other industries, in a few hands?

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