Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Bill. While the amendments may be well intentioned, I do not think it is fair to portray farmers as recklessly starting to plant trees on the areas mentioned within the amendments. There are other ways of policing this through, for instance, area aid payments or schemes that will probably be forthcoming based on the passing of this Bill. That will police this. A person will lose the payment if he or she plants on a sensitive area, a protected area or in an area that is not environmentally friendly for trees.

As Senator Lombard has quite rightly said, since the commencement of this Dáil and Seanad, we have been discussing forestry and the problems and issues with licensing. This is a way of alleviating some of the issues for smaller plantations, agroforestry and riparian forestry. Farmers, landowners, planners and those who work with farmers in almost every move they make in the current day and every decision they make on their farm are not and will not be reckless enough to breach anything mentioned in these amendments without putting us back to square one again and to the bureaucracy of licensing for small areas of plantation.