Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This issue is very serious for a lot of people in many parts of the country. Where I live in County Leitrim has one of the highest rates of afforestation in the country. Sitka spruce trees are everywhere. When I look outside, where the sky meets the land, it is Sitka spruce forestry on all sides. Forestry is painted as this great thing that will do an awful lot of good for people, but for the communities I live in and represent, it has been a very negative thing because it has starved those communities of people. I will tell the Minister of State why. When farmland is planted, farmers never need to buy a gate or fertiliser again, or cut hedges, or get the vet in when an animal is sick. They never need anything again. Machinery does not need repairing again. All those auxiliary parts of the local economy that require people to do the work to keep farming going are gone. The only thing that happens is that, after about 12 years, some big company comes in with major machinery for about three weeks, thins the forest and activity is then finished for another seven or eight years. In another seven or eight years, there is a big burst of activity for another three weeks but then nothing until the land is clear-felled and then replanted. That is what we see happening in all our areas.

In most of the parishes around where I live, the population is less than 30 people per square kilometre, which means that community is in terminal decline. That is what we see happening across much of County Leitrim. When we see very low levels of population, there are very high levels of afforestation. That is the problem we have. In theory, none of us has a problem with trees being grown. They are absolutely brilliant. They do so much for our biodiversity and have such potential, but they kill communities. That is the problem. We need to find a way of dealing with that.

I will make a final point. There has been much talk of the corporate sector coming to Coillte to access State money to line the pockets of foreign multinational corporations. That is what we see happening. This is not new. This is already happening. Half the forests that have already been planted have been planted by pension and foreign funds that are coming in, buying up land and planting it under the noses of farmers. Farmers cannot compete with them. This is not a new venture. It is more of the same bad policies of this Government.

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