Michael Fitzmaurice warns BIS change will 'open the gate'

If I'm a corporate, or if I'm a company, and I put in a BIS application which I'm entitled to do, can I get the 20 years now? So if any entity meets the criteria of an active farmer, check under the BIS and receive one year of BIS, on that basis then they will be eligible for the 20 years. Is there not a fear that it's opening the gate? What you've done basically in the stroke of a barrel is that you've opened the gate to guys that will come in and buy land beside farmers right around this country to blow them out in the interest of forestry. And that's facts. Look, you can portray it that way. I'm not portraying, I'm portraying reality. So that, in terms of what we're seeing, and in terms of what we're trying to do, and what was coming through the public consultation, so these are the registered foresters who are dealing with all the parties that you're mentioning, whether they're corporate entities or whether they're farmers or whether they're private landowners who are neither a corporate entity or a farmer. The biggest block that they were saying was those parties who were minded to plant, in particular those young farmers, in particular those who had inherited land, who were, I would say, being hardest hit. So in terms of a risk-reward and a balanced approach to this, that's where it was coming from. If I was a company before this that hadn't a herd number, wasn't it only farmers that could draw the grounds up to now? Isn't that correct? Sorry, Deputy, if you were a corporate entity... If you hadn't a herd number, could you draw the grounds before now? Of course, but you wouldn't get the 20 years, you'd get 15 years. But before that, before this scheme of 15 and 20 years, could you always get them if you were... Sorry, in the previous programme, 2014-2020, any party who planted, irrespective of who they were, got 15 years, whether they were a farmer, non-farmer... So the 20 years is applicable now to all, providing you have a herd number and a BIS payment put in, is that it? You need to have, whatever the herd number, you need to pass the active farmer check and then have received at least one BIS premium in advance of planting. When, and I've spoken to some of you before about this, when is the legislation going to be ready? At the moment, in forestry that has been cut and you have to replant inside two years, there are people putting in trees that there's power lines near, that new legislation is going to change it to the 50 metres or 55 metres where there's three phase. And there's people putting in trees now that need to be rooted out in six months, eight months, nine months. Can there not be something done within your department that anywhere that's near trees, a line be drawn in the sand at the moment of the setback distances because of the slowness, and it's not your fault, I'm not saying that you're just doing it, the slowness of legislation coming in for the setback distances to be done? Yeah, thanks Deputy. It's a challenging one, I suppose, in terms of we have the criteria in which we issue licences and reforestation licences, and that's on the basis of the agreement between ESB and the IFA, and so we incorporate that into our licensing process. And as we know at the moment, the ESB are engaging bilaterally with landowners to come to a voluntary arrangement with them to widen their corridors in the absence of the legislation and take that approach. Yeah, it'll be very challenging to do that. I understand in this year perhaps... Basically, to put it simple, the farmer has to plan now on the year criteria, which is there, but then there's legislation we know coming in a few months, so you'll put in a tree to take out a tree in six months or seven months. It seems no common sense or a bit of giant up thinking that there'd be a derogation issued or something like that for the time being. The biggest implications are probably for those sites where they're looking to widen the corridors, to be honest. That's where the biggest impact would be. We're obviously working very closely with our colleagues over in DECC who hold the pen on the ESB Act. I understand it's prioritised for the summer schedule, so they'll be discussing that. I know that they're engaged with us, they're engaged with the forestry representatives as well, and obviously the ESB are actively involved in that. It's in everyone's interest to have this sorted as quick as possible. We're actively involved in that. Just as a matter of fact, I didn't see it the last week or two. How is the planting going? I know that you said there's 4,500 hectares of license issued. How is the planting going this year compared with last year? As you know, it's been an extremely wet year. It's been challenging. We've been speaking to some of the nurseries and the farm orgs in the last few days and the registered foresters. As of today, we've issued 148 licenses and we've received 112. I'll come to the second in terms of afforestation, in terms of lands planted so far is 361 hectares. What had you done this time last year? In terms of this time last year, February, March, April, where are we? 378 and we're 361. It's neck and neck. It's neck and neck and it's dry now and from talking to the nurseries, they would say that it was an extremely slow January, February and land is still drying out, so there's going to be a big rush in terms of planting now in that tight window now. How much land do you envisage you'll get from the state to plant? Sorry, I don't want to touch on that. Thanks very much. Again, we're averaging about 18 hectares per site, so again, if we've targeted about 82 organizations so far, we're trying to expand that quite significantly. Will any of them be where there's housing that aren't needed? No, we're having detailed conversations with those organizations and we're looking at land that has the potential for afforestation, but then if it's already allocated for other purposes, then obviously we're not going to proceed with that. That's up to the state organization's choice. Thanks very much. Thank you.