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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 21 Nov 1951

Vol. 127 No. 6

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employment on Forestry Work.

asked the Minister for Lands if he will state on the basis of the memorandum prepared by the Director of Forestry on 24th January, 1949, and reproduced in appendix I of the Forestry Mission's Report, the number of even days' employment that would be given on the average per 100 acres (a) on development fencing, etc., from date of acquisition until planting; (b) on maintenance, thinning, felling and all other work carried out in the forest or at sawmills or elsewhere to bring the timber to the same stage as it would be if imported, during each period of five years (or other convenient period) from the date of planting until the date of maturity of the trees so planted.

On average, the initial development and planting of 100 acres gives a little over 3,000 days' work, or full employment for a year for ten men. (In the case of mechanical drainage and preparation for planting the full-time employment would be less, say six men per year.)

Maintenance work thereafter would provide about 200 days' employment per annum for one man for 100 acres.

Thinning.—Employment on thinning necessarily varies with the intensity and frequency of thinnings, which in turn depend on the species used and the conditions under which they are growing. Generally, thinning is undertaken at intervals of about five years. On the basis of an admixture of species etc., and frequency and extent of thinnings on the lines contemplated by table III of the document mentioned by the Deputy, employment per 100 acres would amount to about 50 days' work per annum for one man between the 15th and 20th year of the crop rotation; the extent of the employment given would increase progressively with each five-year cycle, and would amount to as much as full-time employment for five men between the 45th and 50th year.

Clear-felling of 100 acres of mature timber would afford full-time employment for a year to 30 men.

I could not give the Deputy a reliable estimate of the employment likely to be given in the conversion of forest produce in sawmills or similar plant. My Department's experience of such conversion is too limited to enable a reliable estimate to be made.

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