I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £70,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1953, for Salaries and Expenses in connection with Forestry (No. 13 of 1946), including a Grant-in-Aid for Acquisition of Land.
The two most important items covered by this Supplementary Estimate are the acquisition of land for forestry purposes and the employment of labour in the State forests and I propose to refer first to each of these matters.
There was a balance of over £23,000 in the Land Acquisition (Grant-in-Aid) Fund at the 1st April, 1952, and the provision of £100,000 in the original Vote for this year therefore made available a total af approximately £123,000. By reference to the trend of expenditure in recent years this sum appeared adequate to meet requirements in the current year. Expenditure in 1951/52, excluding two exceptional acquisitions, namely, Shelton Abbey and Kinnitty Castle, amounted to only slightly over £72,000 and no similar exceptional purchases were foreseen this year. Expenditure has, however, proved to be heavier than expected. The total to the 28th February, 1953 was £111,278 and it is now possible that up to £130,000 will be expended in the full year, making necessary the provision of the extra £7,000 inserted in the Supplementary Estimate under sub-head C (1).
In the first 11 months of the year a total of 15,000 acres was acquired of which approximately 13,500 acres are plantable. It now appears probable that acquisition progress for the full year will have made available some 15,000 acres of plantable land, that is, about the same figure as last year. The higher level of cost is attributable partly to an upward trend in average price following from various causes and to an extent fortuitous. Several areas containing valuable timber stands have also been taken over.
After allowance is made for the current planting programme of 12,500 acres, it appears probable that the plantable reserve will have increased to about 35,000 acres at 31st March next, compared with a figure of 31,700 acres at the corresponding date last year. This increase will be welcome, but the reserve is still too low by reference to the planting rate.
The aggregate provision in the original Vote for this year for the employment of forest labour was £680,000 that is, the total of the various labour items in sub-head C (2) and the labour figure in sub-head C (3) (1). This figure was £9,000 greater than the corresponding provision in 1951-52 and £20,000 greater than the actual expenditure in that year. It is now clear that even this increased provision was inadequate and it is estimated that an additional £57,000 will be necessary. The total expenditure on forest labour will be about £737,000, or some £77,000 higher than in 1951-52. It is estimated that increases in wages would have involved an additional expenditure of some £40,000 at most for an equivalent volume of work but there has also been an increase in the overall amount of work undertaken and in the level of employment on forestry work.
The minimum number of labourers employed on forestry work during the current year was 3,338 as compared with 2,389 in 1950-51 and 3,057 in 1951-52. The maximum so far this year is 3,867 and is likely to approach 4,000 before the close of the year, compared with 3,079 in 1950-51 and 3,646 in 1951-52. The average weekly number employed this year is provisionally estimated at 3,500 as compared with 2,664 in 1950-51 and 3,342 in 1951-52.
When I introduced the main Forestry Estimate this year, I gave the House a detailed picture of the policy which the Forestry Division would follow during the year. I explained that fresh planting would have to be limited to 12,500 acres for reasons related to the inadequate reserves of plantable land and the uneven distribution between forests of such reserves as were available. I also stressed the serious situation which was tending to develop from the concentration ofeffort upon the establishment of new plantations to an extent inimical to the proper care of those already established. The replacement of failures, cleaning of young plantations, weeding, pruning and thinning, and so forth, are all imperative requirements if, at the end of a 50-year rotation, the nation is to reap a good and valuable timber crop. With the expansion of the planted area in recent years and the approach to the thinning stage of the large area of plantations laid down in the last four or five pre-emergency years, the amount of work to be undertaken under these heads is growing rapidly. The Forestry Division could not hope to give proper attention to them if the order of the day were that priority was to be given at all costs to the achievement of high annual planting figures to satisfy a mistaken impression that such figures are the sole criterion of progress.
I want to remind the House that I went into all this very fully when introducing the main Estimate and made clear the disastrous consequences of inattention to the cultivation and management of the plantations already laid down. I told the House that I had given directions to the Forestry Division that the arrears of such work must be eliminated as quickly as possible and that the work must get priority for the future, even at the expense of curtailing the rate of fresh planting at busy existing centres.
I knew it was my duty to give such directions, and I felt sure that, when the matter was put fairly and clearly before the House, every Deputy would support the decision I had taken. To my regret, however, several Deputies who spoke in the ensuing debate still raised the slogan that we should plant at all costs and irrespective of the demands of our existing plantations. It was alleged that I showed a lack of sincerity and was embarking on a retrograde step by talking of the prior claims of thinning. I hope these Deputies, if they are in the House now, will ponder over the figures I have quoted in regard to the amount of employment given this year on forestry work. Before this year is out,the forest labour staff which usually increases in the closing period of the year and which already totals 3,867 will be almost 4,000, that is, nearly 400 men more than the maximum employed last year, when 15,000 acres were being planted and not far short of 1,000 more than the maximum number employed at any time during the régime of the last Government.
The reason for this rise in employment is that the Department is fulfilling to the utmost of its power my direction that replacements of failures, cleaning, weeding, pruning and thinning must be given proper attention. More work has been done in the State forests this year than ever before, and by placing the crying needs of the plantations for proper cultivation in true perspective, more progress has been made towards fulfilling the country's timber needs than if I had been prepared to allow the plantations to sicken and deteriorate, so that I could come into the House with the pleasant but misleading news that I was arranging to plant a greater area than ever before.
Present expectations are that over 600 acres of old plantations destroyed by fire, etc., will have been replaced during the year compared with a forecast of 238 which I mentioned when introducing the main Estimate and that the figure of 7,366 acres which I mentioned in connection with other—partial—failure replacements will also be exceeded. Thorough cleaning has been undertaken in all plantations where small plants had to contend with the growth of grass and other native vegetation. Exceptionally good growth conditions this year made this work all the more imperative.
Finally, weeding and pruning and road construction in preparation for thinning operations have gone on apace and thinning itself has been accelerated considerably. It is now expected that nearly 7,000 acres, or perhaps slightly more, will have been thinned by direct labour before the close of the year compared with 4,810 acres in 1951-52. This advance in thinning work is particularly gratifying because the situation in regard to thinnings has been getting out of hand in many forests.Even with the great progress made this year I have seen plantations within the past couple of weeks in the Wicklow and Slieve Bloom areas which are badly overdue for attention. I have seen for myself the ill effects on growth of delay in thinning and the difficulties of trying to remedy that situation once overcrowding of the trees has caused them to extend their tops too far upward in the battle for light. It would be a disgrace to allow that position to continue and I am glad to be able to demonstrate to the House that the work is now receiving the attention it requires.
Before passing from this aspect of the Supplementary Estimate I should explain briefly how the supplementary sum of £57,000 which I have mentioned as needed for forest labour is made up in the Estimate. There are increases totalling £88,000 in the provisions for labour under sub-head C (2) (4) and sub-head C (3) (1). These are offset, however, by savings in other labour heads totalling £31,000, leaving the net excess on forest labour at £57,000. The adjustment of charge as between different heads follows from the acceleration of work on the cultivation and management of existing plantations. Expenditure on that work is met from the maintenance and forest timber conversion sub-heads.
Provision is also made in the Supplementary Estimate for various minor sums required for other items covered by sub-heads C (2) and C (3). None of the individual amounts is of special significance. They are, in the main, sums of the type which would be provided by virement if a Supplementary Estimate was not in any event required. The total figure for these items is £20,600, and they represent an excess by £3,500 over the amount of the savings available on items on other than forest labour in the sub-heads. Most of the increases are by way of corollary to the expansion in the labour force, e.g., cartage costs and provisions for tools, etc., under `Materials" heads.
Under sub-head B an additional £3,500 is required. Of this, £2,000 is in respect of additional travelling by foresters in connection with the expandedprogramme of work. The balance of £1,500 is needed because of increases in the rates of travelling and subsistence allowances.
Under sub-head G an extra £1,120 is needed for incidental expenses, the only noteworthy item being an additional £900 for advertising costs. This is due partly to the introduction this year of more effective newspaper warnings of the fire-danger to plantations in the early summer period, and increases in advertising charges. The weather turned out to be quite wet and the advertising was not entirely necessary. We could not have foreseen that.
There are minor savings available from other sub-heads totalling £2,120 and the net amount required for the service as a whole is £70,000.
