Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is good to see the Ceann Comhairle back in the Chair. I have full confidence in her. Let us now drive on with the work we need to do in this Chamber. This is a very important debate. I have quite a few bits to say. I have three minutes so the Ceann Comhairle might remind me when my time is up.

I will speak about the issue of trees, as other speakers mentioned. Leylandii cypress trees are imports that were brought to Ireland in the 1980s. They were fashionable and were planted around bungalows and as windbreakers around farmyards. They offer nothing for wildlife or habitats. They are ugly, shapeless trees that catch wind and are the first trees to fall when we have a storm. If we look at what Mother Nature gave Ireland, she gave us ash, beech and birch trees that lose their leaves in winter. The wind can run through them and, mostly, they will not fall. It is high time we say that we are not importing any more saplings of these awful trees that have no purpose here. Let us get rid of them. They only came here 20 or 30 years ago. We cannot claim that they are anything native or bring some natural heritage. They certainly do not.

There needs to be some support for farmers in respect of ash dieback. At present, 40% to 50% of ash trees have either advanced or early onset ash dieback. Farmers need to be supported to fell those trees or someone at least needs to do surveys of the roadside trees. I have seen what they are like. They are hollowed out and with a gust of wind, they just snap and fall over. It is not so much that they fall into a field. These trees fall onto roads with trucks or cars. For an oncoming motorist, it is a life or death situation when a tree falls onto a public thoroughfare during high winds.

On the farming community, I am very disappointed to see - I am a farmer so I have skin in the game - that TAMS does not provide for stock-proof bovine barbed wire fencing. Every type of electric fencing, such as pig and sheep fencing, is included but no standard barbed wire fencing is covered under TAMS. At the moment, every ditch around rural Ireland has trees down on fences and there are cattle break-outs. It is just a simple thing that could be included in TAMS so that farmers could have their outer boundaries stock-proofed, and cattle would be retained in the farm and would not be out on public roads or climbing over fences that fell during the storm.

There was a big national debate on homeowners of new houses - many Members were on local radio about it - with their fabulous air-to-heat systems. These are incredible systems that are the envy of all of us, yet Storm Éowyn was a disaster for those people. They had no way of heating their homes. There was a national debate but then there was suddenly radio silence. I would love to know whether there is a Government position going forward on what we can do to help these homeowners to make it a little easier.

I will raise two issues relating to schools. There should not be any obligation on schools to make up days they were closed due to storms or snow. Schools should be encouraged to have an online teaching plan and if we get three or four consecutive days of bad weather, they should revert to it. That was done so adeptly during Covid, there surely should be some plan now. This is not to overburden schools. It is just something that at the start of a new academic year, each teacher might have to submit a little template on how he or she might do things.

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