DEAR SIR,

The recent universal outrage at the proposed venture between Coillte and Gresham House has placed a spotlight on the difficulties in the Irish afforestation programme.

However it has also created a smokescreen which has hidden the real scandal in the forestry sector, and that is that for the first time since the 1980s we have no forestry programme in place.

Ministers McConalogue and Hackett announced in November to great fanfare that the Government has put together a package worth €1.3 billion.

Minister Hackett declared this as “the biggest and most farmer friendly forestry programme in the history of the State”. Minister McConalogue stated as recently as last week “it is the Rolls Royce programme aimed at supporting farmers”.

Unfortunately, his senior officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) forgot to tell him the Rolls Royce is up on blocks.

I’m sure the same officials have told him that there are over 7,000ha worth of approvals in the system ready to be planted, but what they neglected to say was that many of these will not proceed because farmers and landowners have moved on and decided that they could not wait any longer for a decision.

Previous scheme

The previous afforestation scheme was to finish in 2020. This was extended to the end of 2022 to allow for the development of the new programme. DAFM have had over two years to prepare this programme, and last week we find out they haven’t even submitted it to the EU for state aid approval.

Because of the well-documented failings of DAFM, the private forestry sector is on its knees, everyone was clinging on for the arrival of the long-awaited Rolls Royce to lift the sector and give farmers and landowners the confidence to re-engage with the idea of incorporating forestry as part of their enterprise.

Nurseries which have struggled to keep the show on the road for the last few years were depending on this renewed vigour to kick start a new era for the industry.

Instead what has happened – nothing! Yet another false dawn and Minister Hackett reluctantly informed the Dáil last week this mess could take up to eight months to resolve.

The industry has been campaigning for the introduction of an independent forestry development agency to help drive the industry forward. Officials in DAFM have resisted such an agency, could it be because such an agency might demand accountability?