Victor Boyhan Urges Creation of National Forestry Development Agency

Firstly, Minister, I want to welcome you and congratulate you on your appointment, and by all accounts from people I know in Ag House, you're working morning, noon and night, so that's all very, very positive, and I'm sure the officials are exhausted, but anyway, I'd like to welcome the officials too, and I suppose to be there, I just want to have a few comments and one or two questions, and I don't think it'll require 10 minutes, but I'll do it as quick as I can. So, Minister, we all know that we need a sustainable forestry sector that can achieve commercial, climate and biodiversity targets, that's a given, we know the commitments in the programme for government, we know that you're a minister for station, with special responsibility in this area, so I suppose there is the focus that we want a reduction in the volume of the import of timber, and I know you're committed to that, and you've touched on some of these issues here today, we want to actively pursue timber options for the construction of new homes, and you may or may not have heard Maria Donnelly on OTE this morning, this is the climate action, and she was on about the potential, and in Scotland, which is a very similar wet climate to us, and a very high percentage of timber that they are growing and using in the construction industry, so we have a challenge there in relation to that, and I'd recommend that your officials might, because I did, print off the transcript from Morning Ireland this morning, because I think she raised really important issues, and I'll leave you with one line from her RTE Morning Ireland interview this morning, where Maria Donnelly says that the government needs to ensure the availability of instruments, including taxation, regulation, and incentives to be put in place to enable farmers to make the necessary changes, and I think that's important, we need to incentivise people, not penalise people, and I know you're committed to that, Minister, so you might just touch on that in your response to me, I think you mentioned about the licensing, but we have to continue to continue to work to improve the current licensing systems, which are holding back people, I mean, we've had great debate of this, and Mr Delaney, you've been here before, and we had a lot of debate, and I know the idea of the merging, the thinning, and the felling licences is a good one, and I'm glad to hear all of that. I suppose, really, what I want to suggest to you, I've suggested before, I think the time now has come for the establishment of a national forestry development agency. It is one of the few natural resources we have in this country where there's no agency, so with the Department of Agriculture coming up, you know, Quilcher is involved, it's a state agency, it's involved in licensing, planting, acquisition of lands, disposal of lands, a number of other issues, and I think the whole issue, there should be the establishment of a national forestry development agency. Why not? It can be removed. I think we need, I think that's what's needed, and that's what's required, and I'm in support of the synergy between the private sector and the farmers and the small farmers and forestry, as I am of Quilcher. We have to make sure that it is always balanced and equal opportunity and fairness of hand and fairness of approach, but I'm making a call here today and asking you, would you explore, with your political colleagues, the development of a national forestry development agency, because I think there's a lot of sense in that and bringing the experts together. Touching on the ash dieback, I'm calling for the introduction of a roadside ash tree removal grant. This is in Britain, it's all over the place. You will be familiar with in Cork, they have the hedge cutting scheme. Now, it's only 50 euros per metre, but there's a scheme, there's a lot of ash dieback all over the country, and farmers need, I think local authorities are best placed to administer this scheme, because the reality is they can do road traffic management, which is really important. We've got to take down ash dieback in some way. The transportation, that's a difficulty. The burning of this product is another problem, because there's restrictions on burning. But I think we have to be bold, and we have to be imaginative of how we're going to tackle that. And I was speaking to a councillor in Galway today who told me that there are councillors up there that are using their motion money to subsidise hedge cutting. I mean, there's a real issue there. So, Minister, I'll finish on this to say that I think there's a real need for a serious look at the slightly remove of the department in terms of forestry. There's a real need to develop a forestry development agency, and I'd like your feedback on that, or at least some commitment that you'd bring it to other people in the department and in government, to see if could it be possibly explored, and, as I say, would you consider the introduction of a roadside ash tree removal scheme in conjunction with the 31 local authorities? Thank you, Minister. Thank you very much, Minister. First of all, in regard to the report on Marnie Island this morning, I'd like to answer that, first of all, in the following way. In Scotland at the moment, yes, they are planting 17,000 hectares a year, which is a massive amount of timber. What I look on this, and our job, is to compete with that. In other words, we want to plant – it's in the programme for government, it's part of our policy – we want to get to 8,000 hectares. We were doing that before, I can tell you with personal experience, myself and my brother Danny, we would have been involved in that work an awful lot in the 80s and in the 90s, at a time when we were hitting 8,000 and 9,000 and more, and we were planting that amount. But now, we're falling behind, but we have doubled on what we were doing last year. So, we are getting progressively better, because of the quicker licensing, because of the new programme that we have. When you say about incentivising, I would say to both yourself, and both to the person that you quote, 1.3 billion euros into any sector, in the period between 23 and 27, is a massive amount of money. And that is what this forestry programme is at present. There's a lot of money, there's a lot of schemes. There are a variety of schemes that weren't there in the past, and I'll just give you one example. Agroforestry, something that I really believe in. That is where a farmer might have what you call good green fields, but maybe they might want to cut hair silage, but they do want to have them for grazing. They can continue to avail of the payments that they have at present. They can also come along and plant trees that can still graze around them, and they can get the additional payment that will come from that. It will be tax-free. And when we talk about tax initiatives, this government, and indeed previous government's chairman, have always ensured that all payments deriving from forestry are tax-free. So, I'd actually think that with regard to incentives, we're doing very good. We have new schemes that weren't there before. There are other schemes. For instance, somebody who might not like trees at all at all. Well, we have a new scheme whereby they'll be able to plant trees along hedgerows. They can plant them at the edges of driveways. They can plant them around sheds and around yards and get an attractive payment for up to 10 years, and they can do up to a hectare, which actually doesn't need any license. So, there are a vast variety of new incentives that are there. So, we are doing everything. And forestry is very positive. And, you know, if you stand back and look at it over the last number of years, we've had problems in forestry. But one of the biggest problems that we have is people speaking negatively of it. Nobody is putting a gun to anybody's head and saying plant trees. What we are saying is it is an alternative for some, not everybody. It does suit some lands, not everybody's land. But we are trying to incentivize it. I would say to you, with regard to a new agency, you must understand that at present, we have a group who are doing excellent work. And they're called Timber and Construction Group. Now, they're doing great work. Maybe not everybody knows they're there. But what they are is a group of people from the industry who are leading in their fields. And they're looking at greater use of timber. And I'll give you an example, a very, very important example. Last week, myself and my son Jackie, we went to Galway. And we visited the university. And we saw, and it is actually frightening to see this, where they're developing the use of timber. And that it would actually replace steel. In other words, in going high. And I've seen the product that they're making. I've seen it being put under the stress. And this is every bit as strong as steel. Sorry, Minister. I'm just conscious of my time, too. Can I just come back with you? No, I appreciate what you're saying. I just want to narrow in. It's only 57 seconds. So I just want to sort of clear yes or no. Do you favor exploring the possibility of a National Forestry Development Agency? If you could say that answer in one or two words, it would be great. And the introduction of a roadside ash tree removal scheme. I just want concise answers. No, I give a straight answer. No to the agency. No to the National Agency. No. That's great. And I'd love the opportunity to expand on it. But if you want a straight answer, the answer will be no. With regard to the roadside scheme, under the Road Traffic Act, and I'm sorry to go caught in this, but I have to because, as you know, it is a fact. Any hedge draws, and this is something that's a great bone of contingent to everyone inside in this room, when it comes to cutting hedge draws and everything else along the side of the road, unfortunately, the Road Traffic Act of 97 states, it's Section 78 states, that the responsibility for what goes on on the side of the road is the responsibility of the landowner. But I do want to say, if you look at the money that's being made available, because people who have ash dieback, they have every sympathy in the world from me and the department. But it's not just sympathy. We've put money to match that. I quoted in my opening statement the amount of money that's available for the ash dieback schemes. So it's not as though we're saying to people, off with you, and you must manage away yourself. There is money for them. But with regard to a specific scheme, there are 100,000 kilometers of road where there could be affected by this, and do this yourself if we had a specific scheme, that wouldn't be practical. Thank you very much, Minister.