Shane McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted with the debate. It is refreshing to listen to the views expressed by Members and I will now reflect on them.

Since the outbreak of Chalara fraxinea in Europe we have taken 32 samples of suspect cases from throughout the country. I am from a farming background and everybody knows about the traceability of our beef and dairy produce. I was delighted to discover that we have a traceability system in respect of our trees. It was fantastic to learn about the work that has been done by previous Governments.

Senator Mooney spoke of the disappointment in his county. I have been in County Leitrim, which is the home of forestry. I would not be apologising for anything. In County Leitrim they produce 13 million doorframes and it is the one county that is still planting trees. We had worries about getting the acres for planting. County Leitrim is leading the way. They see how they can benefit financially from it. I hold nothing back on that.

Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill raised the issue of traceability. Chalara fraxinea is found in young plants and we have the capacity to trace where these plants have come from. Some diseased plants were among the 30,000 imported plants and some were on site in County Leitrim. While it was being tested, we were able to find out where the plants came from and where they were in other counties. The minute the test showed positive, those sites were taken out.

Senator Mooney asked why other trees were taken out. The reason is that 3,000 to 4,000 plants from a consignment of 30,000 trees were used to finish off a plantation in another county. The trees surrounding them within the same field were taken out. The plants were not in one specific corner but were in the middle of a plantation. That is the reason that up to 20,000 other trees were taken out.

Senator Ó Domhnaill was very anxious about traceability and he referred to Lar Corbett and hurling. I hope that when Lar goes up to County Donegal to train them how to hurl, it is on his performance of three years ago and not last year. The ash tree is used to make hurleys. Senator Comiskey has spoken about the industry and what it means to him.

Nobody could emphasise more strongly the points raised by Members today. We take this issue very seriously. My constituency colleague, Senator Thomas Byrne, spoke about a war cabinet. We have a war cabinet in place and hold a meeting every day and we bring in people when we come to make decisions. We are dealing seriously with this outbreak but we do not want to create panic. We talk about awareness and we notify the people in the industry immediately. Radio stations have picked up the information. The RTE programme "Ear to the Ground" will do a full programme on Chalara fraxinea tonight, even though I told them that they were three weeks too late. Now, we have the situation under control.

The work we will do in the next three to four months will determine how we can cut out all the risks. We are an island and we have been able to escape other diseases because of that. We have an opportunity in the next three to four months to deploy staff. Our inspectors have all met in the past two days and, as we speak, they are going out to all plantations where plants from abroad were imported and planted. The inspections will continue for the next week to ten days. We know exactly where every plant is. We must deal with our nurseries. Our meeting this morning was very constructive and new challenges relating to the hurley manufacturing industry and plant nurseries were raised. We will have a meeting in the Department tomorrow to see what further steps we can take to deal with them.

Senator Feargal Quinn outlined the seriousness of the disease and raised the issue of inspection. Inspections will be ongoing this week. We will get one chance to deal with this problem. Money will not be an issue. I made it quite clear on day one that there will be no compensation for anybody and there was not a word of it mentioned. The people who had imported the plants were prepared to replace them with a different species for replanting on the ten sites. The foresters brought in their equipment and, on behalf of the owners, went in and took out the trees free of charge. The Government will not stop the direct payments to the farmers and they will not be hindered and will get their payment in the same way as everybody else. We are continuing with the reforestation of these areas and will pay the lump sum at the beginning.

I am not a fool, but the next four or five months will be hard and cruel. Senator Byrne has put the gun to my head. This could be catastrophic, but we must remain cool and calm and be ruthless in dealing with it and work together.

I have covered all the issues that were raised during this constructive debate. We are taking this matter very seriously. I went into the Department red raw 15 months ago. I did not know we had traceability in the forestry industry as well as in the beef, pig and horse industries. It is a compliment to the staff in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. That is why we are the best. The work has been done down through the years, regardless of the parties in government. This has helped us. We must move forward, and what concerns me is whether whatever we do will be enough. We have three months and there are ways of recognising the disease in the winter months. It is not necessary to have leaves on the trees to recognise the disease. My officials have brought in the necessary expertise and we have support from others who are fond of and knowledgeable about trees. Inspections will take place. We have asked the gun clubs and others to help us. We have a poster campaign seeking the assistance of people and we will not have a problem in asking people to make specific sacrifices.

I thank Members for their contributions. We have held very constructive meetings. The people come together at a time of crisis. If the crisis deepens, we will deal with it in the same way each day. We will be ruthless and, with a bit of luck in 12 months time, we will have it under control.