Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 7, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following:" "woodland" means land under trees under 0.1 hectare with a tree crown cover of more than 20 per cent of the total area, or the potential to achieve this cover at maturity.".

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I welcome the news about Tree Day. It is also the centenary of Avondale, which I think was founded in 1904 when we first got involved in forestry education, so trees have been important for a very long time. In regard to my amendment, what the Minister of State has said encompasses the spirit of the amendment. The preface states that the Bill seeks to promote forestry in a manner that maximises the economic, environmental and social value of forests, which includes woodlands, within the principles of sustainable forest management, and to confer particular powers on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. We want to maximise the value of this asset. That was the purpose of the amendments. I welcome the Minister of State's explanation and I will not press the amendment. By the time we got to amendment No. 38 we were pretty well at idemthat we see the value of the smaller plantations and the broadleaf plantations. I could come back to what trees should be exempted in later amendments, but that is the spirit I share and, therefore, I will not move those amendments.