Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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351. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will confirm that only larch trees were removed from Gougane Barra; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20346/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Coillte Teoranta was established as a private commercial company under the Forestry Act, 1988 and day-to-day operational matters, such as the management of their forest estate, are the responsibility of the company. As advised to the Deputy in March, Phytophthora ramorum was confirmed on Japanese larch trees in Gougane Barra Forest Park, County Cork, earlier this year. To prevent the further spread of the disease, control measures were implemented in accordance with Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine protocols. Felling the infected trees is the appropriate measure with the aim of preventing further spread by limiting spore production.

In relation to the actual removal of trees, Coillte has advised that 70% of the volume felled in Gougane Barra was Larch and that the remaining 30% was made up of Lodgepole pine (19%) and Sitka spruce (11%). I am advised that these areas were felled along with the larch because they were either in intimate mixtures with the Larch or would have been small blocks of these other species remaining isolated in the forest and would have blown over in the first storm event. I understand that, subsequently, there was substantial wind-blow in other parts of the Forest Park after Storm Darwin and Coillte advise that removal of these extra species proved to be the prudent option as going back to harvest these isolated blocks would have proven very difficult.