Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will pick up on a couple of points at the start that came from the contributions. I just want to correct Deputy Sherlock on a point he made once or twice, just so it is clear what the situation is. The Deputy was referring to new licences and the level of new licences over the past two, three and four years. He said that the level of new licences is not matching the level of felling and that we were, therefore, not planting as much as we were felling. He said this once or twice. It is very important to get this correct. The level of new licences are entirely new licences, not for those granted before. It is additional to what was there before. If one has land in forestry, whenever it is felled, that felling licence is also a planting licence and one is actually legally obliged to replant it. Every hectare of ground in the country that is under forestry and is felled is automatically replanted. All of the new afforestation licences that we issue - and we need to issue more - are in addition to that. It is extra forestry. One holds what one has but one grows more. For example, back in 2006 we had 697,000 ha under forestry. Just last year that had grown to 808,000 ha under forestry. It has been growing.

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