I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £10 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on 31st day of March, 1963, for Salaries and Expenses in connection with Forestry (No. 13 of 1946 and No. 6 of 1956) including a Grant-in-Aid for Acquisition of Land.
The net estimate for Forestry for the year 1962/63, as adjusted by this token Supplementary Estimate, stands at £2,524,810, an increase of £137,410 over the 1961/62 net Estimate figure as shown in the printed volume of Estimates. It will be recalled, however, that a Supplementary Estimate of £91,700 for 1961/62 was passed by the Dáil towards the end of February, too late for inclusion in the printed figures and the net increase for which allowance is made in the Estimate now before the House is, accordingly, £45,710.
Deputies will wish to be given detailed information on the subheads relating to land acquisition, forest development and management, appropriations-in-aid and private forestry (Subheads C.1, C.2, G and D) and, before dealing with these items, I propose to refer briefly to the other subheads of the Vote.
Subhead A—Salaries, Wages and Allowances—shows an increase of £81,400 over the original provisions for 1961-62. An additional sum of £28,000 was provided in this subhead in the Supplementary Estimate so that the increase for 1962-63 over the adjusted provision for 1961-62 is approximately £53,000. The bulk of this increase is attributable to the revision of Civil Service pay scales; allowance is also being made for normal incremental increases and for some necessary additional inspectorate and forester posts.
Subhead B—Travelling and Incidenal Expenses—shows an increase of £8,900 over the provision for 1961-62. The increase in this subhead is entirely due to increased allowance for travelling and subsistence expenditure. The steady increase in the State forest area and the concurrent increase in the numbers of field staff employed necessitate a progressive increase in the annual rate of expenditure on travelling expenses. The amounts inserted for advertising and publicity and other incidental expenses call for no special comment.
The provision for Sawmilling—Subhead C.3—shows an increase of £3,300 over the original provision for 1961-62. The increase over the provision for that year as adjusted in the Supplementary Estimate is, however, only £2,000. This subhead provides for the operation of the Department's fixed sawmills at Cong and Dundrum.
For Forestry Education—Subhead E —the provision for 1962/63 is lower by £3,500 compared with the original provision for 1961/62, the reduction being due to the exclusion from the subhead for 1962/63 of any provision for expenditure on the restoration of Avondale House as a centre for refresher and specialised courses for our forest technical staff. When introducing the Estimate for Forestry last year, I mentioned that a sum of £20,000 had been allocated for this work from the American Grant Counterpart Reserve Fund and that the item of £5,000 included in Subhead E for the work expected to be done during the year was balanced by a corresponding figure for recoupment of that amount in the Appropriations-inAid subhead. In the event, the Office of Public Works did not find it possible to commence the work during the year but it is hoped that the work will start during 1962/63. Henceforth any expenditure and recoupment in connection with this item will, however, be dealt with in the Vote for Public Works and Buildings.
In the current year, there will be an average of 92 trainee foresters undergoing instructiton at the Departments training establishments at Kinnity Castle and Shelton Abbey. Allowance has been made for an increase of £1,500 in expenditure on the management of the establishments in the year.
Subhead F—Agency, Advisory and Special Services—is down by £3,540 on the original provision for 1961/62. The amount sought for 1962/63 provides for the re-engagement of a firm of industrial consultants for short periods during the year as may be required in connection with the application and extension of the incentive bonus scheme for forest workers.
Turning now to the more important parts of the Estimate, it will be seen that the grant-in-aid for land acquisition (Subhead C. 1) is £135,000, £5,000 higher than the figure for 1961/62. The balance in the Grant-in-Aid Fund on 31st March, 1962, was £55,000, so that with the new grant of £135,000 sought there will be a total of £190,000 available for the purchase of land in 1962/63. This amount would, in the ordinary course, be adequate to cover the extent of purchase transactions likely to be brought to a conclusion within the year. Deputies may be aware, however, that my Department has contracted to purchase a large area of 4,000 acres in County Tipperary, which was sold by public auction some time ago. The purchase of this area is expected to be concluded within the next few months and the Fund will thereby be reduced by approximately £40,000. It now appears likely that the balance remaining in the Fund after completion of this transaction will be insufficient for the remainder of the year and that it will be necessary to seek an additional grant by way of Supplementary Estimate. In this connection, may I digress for a moment to say to the House that I expect to have the supplementary grant under this heading before the House within the next fortnight? Perhaps, having indicated the reason for it, it will save discussion on the Supplementary Estimate when it comes before the House.
Last year, the gross total area acquired for State Forestry purposes was 31,794 acres. This was the largest area acquired by my Department in any single year so far. The achievement of this record was facilitated by the acquisition of a number of exceptionally large areas during the year. Four such areas were taken over towards the end of the year—two in County Mayo, one on the Cork-Kerry border and one in County Wexford. These four cases accounted for a total of 8,500 acres between them. The balance of 23,300 acres acquired in the year, which yielded a total plantable content of 21,288 acres, was acquired in 476 separate transactions, giving an average productive area of 45 acres per transaction compared with an average productive area per transaction of 51 acres in 1960/61 and an average of 67 acres in 1959/60. The progressive decline in the average size of acquisition which has become apparent in recent years has inevitably added to the difficulties being encountered by my Department in its efforts to increase the plantable reserve.
The total plantable content of the area acquired in 1961-62 was approximately 25,500 acres. The effective plantable reserve at the beginning of the year was 49,300 acres. The planting programme for the year was 25,200 acres, of which an estimated total of 2,000 acres consisted of land formerly classified as unplantable or woodland areas cleared for replanting. With the addition of the plantable area of 25,500 acres acquired in 1961-62, the effective reserve on 1st April, 1962, was 51,600 acres, an increase of 2,300 acres over the reserve figure for the previous year.
The overall plantable reserve position, therefore, has improved, but not significantly. The reserve is still insufficient to enable work programmes at the individual forest centres to be maintained at a steady level. Indeed, by the end of 1961-62, plantable reserves had been completely exhausted at a number of forests and in the absence of a sufficient volume of general development and maintenance work at some of those forests reductions in staff could not be avoided. The distribution of the plantable reserve is very uneven and, until a higher and more evenly-spread rate of land acquisition is achieved, the difficulties in programme planning will continue.
When I was introducing the Forestry Estimate last year, I mentioned that progress had been made in a number of commonage and title difficulty cases under the new procedure made available under the Forestry Code which involves the formal use of the powers of compulsory acquisition conferred by the Forestry Act, 1946. During last year, proceedings were brought to a successful conclusion in the first of such cases and possession was taken of the two areas incolved—one of 1,800 acres in County Mayo, and the other an area of almost 600 acres in County Kerry. So far this year, 1,566 acres have been acquired and further acquisition orders have been made by the Land Commission in respect of a total of 350 acres. Price agreement has been reached and applications for acquisition orders have either been made or are pending in respect of areas totalling 3,284 acres. There are quite a large number of other areas—totalling in all some 70,000 acres—to which it is proposed to apply the compulsory procedure. Many of the areas being considered for acquisition in this way comprise extensive commonages which it would have been practically impossible to acquire in the normal course because of title difficulties or disagreement on the part of a minority of shareholders. The acquisition of some of these areas will lead to large-scale forestry development in many districts where little or no progress would otherwise be possible.
Before turning from the Land Acquisition Subhead there is one further matter which should be mentioned. In the debate on the Supplementary Estimate for Forestry for 1961/62, a number of Deputies made pleas for the sale by the Forestry Division of various odd portions of better quality land to particular landholders in their constituencies.
Let me make it clear at the outset that the Forestry Division does not set out to buy land of agricultural quality. The very low scale of land valuation under which it operates makes it a foregone conclusion that no significant area of good quality land will find its way into the Forestry Division's possession. There is an additional precaution in the sifting precedure under which, before acquisition, a Land Commision inspector examines any parcel which may contain land bordering on the agricultural to ensure that such land is not required for Land Commission purposes. Nonetheless, a very small proportion of better quality land may occasionally be included in the acquisition of a large parcel of the usual sub-marginal quality which comes in for forestry and these are the cases which give rise to representations for the sale of the odd portions. It should be recognised that the average quality class of land which the Forestry Division is planting and is endeavouring to build up into a viable forest economy is very low and the small area of better quality land which can be acquired and planted is extremely important in improving the average output of timber per acre. In forestry as in agriculture there is a direct relationship between the quality of the ground and crop yields. Sitka spruce, for example, planted on first-class forest land, will produce an average annual yield of 260 cubic feet of timber per acre but on low-quality ground may yield only an average of 130 cubic feet. A good case could be made for more extensive afforestation of better quality land. Because of the predominant importance of agriculture in our economy, our policy is to concentrate on the afforestation of land which is marginal or sub-marginal by agricultural standards but there is a definite economic advantage in the inclusion in the forest area of the small pockets of better land which I have mentioned.
There is the additional consideration that these areas of better land enable our foresters to introduce a greater variety of species and allow them to get some hardwoods planted. Deputies will appreciate that the exposed areas of low fertility which comprise the normal forestry acquisition offer very little choice of species but on the better areas there is a wider choice and if conditions are favourable the planting of hardwoods can be entertained. The Department is already under strong pressure from the furniture trade and other forms of industry and from the hurley manufacturers to secure a wider planting of hardwoods. These industrialists are thinking ahead to the need for competitive manufacture and trading in the wider sphere of the Common Market and the Department would wish to do all it can to ensure that its plantations will produce the necessary raw materials but, to secure this, it must be permitted to retain intact its acquisitions and not to skim off the small portion of cream at the behest of every neighbouring farmer.
If the Department had to yield to every application which is made to sell off portions of land the already small pool of better quality forest land would be depleted, our prospects of attaining a viable forest economy would seriously be weakened and the Department would be unable to supply the future hardwood needs of our home manufacturers. A rigid stand towards such applications must, therefore, be maintained and I trust that my Department may have the support of all rural Deputies in maintaining that attitude.
Subhead C.2—Forest Development and Management—totals £2,430,250 for 1962-63, an increase of £181,850 over the original provision for 1961-62. In the Supplementary Estimate for 1961-62, however, Subhead C.2 was increased by £124,100 so that the increase for 1962-63 over the adjusted provision for the previous year is £57,750.
Expenditure on labour accounts for the major part of the expenditure under this subhead. The provision for labour for 1961-62, as adjusted in the Supplementary Estimate consequent on an increase in the basic wage rates of forestry workers with effect from 1st April, 1961, was £1,837,500. The corresponding provision in the 1962-63 Estimate is £1,879,000, an increase of £41,500 over the previous year's adjusted figure. The balance of the increase of £57,750 in the subhead for 1962-63 is spread over the non-labour heads.
The adjusted provision for Head 1 —State Forest Nurseries—for 1961-62 was £189,000, £23,000 more than the figure shown in the printed Estimates volume. Provision was continued at about the same level for 1962-63.
Progress was continued during the past year in implementing the policy of establishing large-scale nurseries to replace as many as possible of the small nursery units of uneconomic size which had hitherto been in operation. Two new areas were taken over for development as large-scale nurseries during the year—one at Clogheen, County Tipperary, and the other at Killygordon, County Donegal. Nine large-scale nursery areas have been acquired so far and other areas are being considered for acquisition. When the required number of big nurseries are in production, the Department's task of meeting the very heavy annual demand for plants will be greatly facilitated.
Head 2—Establishment of Plantations—covers all expenditure on fencing, ground preparation, drainage and planting of land, apart from mechanical work proper to Head 6. The adjusted provision under this Head for 1961/62 was £608,000. For 1962/63, the provision is £581,000, £27,000 less than the adjusted provision for 1961/62. This reduction is entirely due to a reduction in the requirement for the purchase of fencing wire. The provision for labour under this Head for the year is £484,000.
Planting continued at a very high level in 1961/62. The total area of new plantations established in the year was 25,200 acres. In addition, new crops were established on 400 acres of State forest lands from which marketable crops had been removed. From now on there will be a slow but steady increase in the area of plantations being clear-felled and the reforestation of such areas must be regarded as an integral part of the annual planting programme. In addition 600 acres of plantations destroyed by fire, and so on, were replanted last year.
By the end of 1961/62, the total planted area held by my Department had increased to 357,000 acres, consisting of 346,000 acres of State plantations and 11,000 acres of acquired woodland areas still held intact. It is a measure of the remarkable progress that has been achieved in the rate of afforestation in recent years that of the total of 346,000 acres of State plantations now established no less than 119,000 acres, more than one-third of the total consist of plantations established in the past 5 years.
Planting is being continued at the rate of 25,000 acres this year and despite the difficulties about land acquisition to which I referred earlier I am confident that the Forestry Service will succeed in maintaining this programme in future years.
The planting programme for the current year is as widely dispersed throughout the country as the level of land reserves held in the various areas allows. The western counties will continue to occupy a predominant place, with a programme of 11,000 acres, 44 per cent of the entire national programme. The steady expansion in forestry development in the western counties in recent years has been a major factor in the achievement of planting targets. Indeed, but for the rapid increase in the rate of land acquisition in the western areas, it would have been impossible to achieve the ultimate planting target of 25,000 acres a year.
Last year, almost half of the total productive area acquired for planting was situated in the West and half the total area at present being considered for acquisition lies in the western counties. Land is available for large-scale forestry development in greater quantity in the western areas than in any other part of the country and it will continue to be one of the main objectives of my Department to speed up the acquisition and planting of land there. The social effect of State forestry development in terms of employment is of special significance in the western counties where new sources of productive employment are so badly needed. Forestry is already making a worthwhile contribution towards providing some easement of the problems of unemployment and under-employment in the West, where there are now about 2,000 men employed regularly on State forestry work, and where the annual wage bill is now in the region of £800,000.
Deputies are aware of the importance which the inter-departmental Committee on the Problems of Small Western Farms attached to forestry as a source of productive employment in the West. The Government in accepting the committee's report have been giving consideration to various measures which will permit of still further expansion of afforestation in the Western counties. The extensive research work which my Department is carrying on with a view to establishing the limits to which we can go in the afforestation of less fertile peat soils in conditions of troublesome drainage and exposure will, of course, make a very valuable contribution in this field and some further expansion might reasonably be expected as the results of this research work become available. In the meantime the Government believe that the acquisition of suitable areas in the West for forestry purposes could be facilitated if the Land Commission were permitted to transfer to the Forestry Division for forestry development certain lands acquired under the Land Acts. An amendment to the law would be necessary to enable this to be done and such an amendment is being considered.
Consideration is also being given to the possibility of more intensive steps to acquire for forestry purposes extensive blocks lying between existing State forest properties. Forestry development could be advanced if these lands, which in many cases are not capable of supporting a prosperous agricultural community, could be acquired for forestry purposes. No decision has yet been taken as to how best the tempo of acquisition in cases of this kind can be accelerated but the matter is under active consideration.
To sum up, I may say that employment in the West on forestry work is certain to increase steadily as the rate of land acquisition is accelerated and, of course, there will be a further substantial increase as the very large areas of young plantations established there in the past decade reach the productive stages of growth.
The provision for Head 3—New Roads and Buildings—for 1962-63 is down by £30,000 compared with the original provision for 1961-62. The reduced provision, however, is not indicative of any intention to reduce the tempo of forest road construction. The provision in 1962-63 is, in fact, £87,000 higher than the actual level of expenditure under the head in 1961-62. Last year, the road construction programme was to some extent adversely affected by weather conditions and although just over 200 miles of new forest roads were completed in the year, the achievement fell short of expectations. The provision for 1962-63 is adequate for the completion of over 250 miles of road in the year and it is hoped that this target will be achieved.
The provision for road construction for 1962-63 includes a sum of £236,000 for direct labour. For the supply of road materials the provision is £157,000; the bulk of this sum is for the supply of stones and gravel by contractors and it includes, therefore, a substantial sum for indirect employment. The provision for buildings under the Head for 1962-63 is £33,500 compared with £25,000 in 1961-62.
Turning now to Head 4—General Forest Management—it will be seen that the provision for 1962-63 shows an increase of £77,400 over the original provision for 1961-62. In the Supplementary Estimate for 1961-62, however, the provision for that year was increased by £74,400 so that the increase for 1962-63 is £3,000 above the adjusted provision for last year.
The provision for general forest management for the current year totals £825,000, over one-third of the total for the entire of Subhead C. 2. This, the biggest head of expenditure in the Vote, bears all the costs of maintenance and protection in the State plantations, including such work as the cleaning of young plantations, the repair of fences, drains and forest roads, pruning, fire-line construction and so on. With new plantations totalling 25,000 acres being added to the forest area each year, the expenditure under this head must inevitably increase. Proper attention to maintenance and protection needs is, of course, vital if the plantations are eventually to give the best possible return in timber production for the money invested. The bulk of the provision under the Head—£798,000 out of the total of £825,000, or 97 per cent.—is in respect of labour.
In connection with the question of protection of the State forests, which calls for increased provision every year, I must make special reference to the growing peril from forest fires. The widespread publicity given in the Press and on radio and television to the many serious forest fires that had to be dealt with this year should have brought the seriousness of this problem home to all sections of the community. During the danger period this year, forest staffs, aided by the Garda Síochána, local fire-fighting services and voluntary helpers, have had to deal with 530 fires in or near forest areas. Several of these fires were of very serious dimensions and large areas of forest land were threatened. As it was, 40 of these fires caused damage to plantations, destroying 300 acres of young timber with a potential value of about £250,000.
As the area of State forest increases, so will the danger from forest fires, and I earnestly appeal to the public to cooperate with my Department in the work of protecting the forests. This appeal is directed particularly to those farmers who engage in the burning of rough grazing lands in the spring months. The legal requirements about the burning of vegetation in the vicinity of forest lands are widely publicised and people who choose to ignore them and cause damage to plantations as a result of burning without giving the notice required will not only be liable to prosecution but they will also be liable to payment of compensation for the damage caused. The danger from forest fires is now so serious that my Department cannot afford to be lenient in such cases and the law will henceforth be rigorously applied.
The provision for Head 5—Timber Conversion—is up by £29,500 compared with the original provision for the previous year but it just about equates the provision for that year as adjusted in the Supplementary Estimate. £118,000 of the provision for 1962/63 is in respect of labour. Direct labour felling by my Department is now largely confined to felling to meet special orders such as transmission poles for the ESB and the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, and to felling in areas being thinned for the first time or areas where there are unusual felling problems. The great bulk of forest produce is now sold standing to timber merchants who have it felled and extracted by their own employees.
Thinning returns for 1961/62 show that the total volume of thinning produce for the year was 3.3 million cubic feet, compared with 2.6 million cubic feet in the previous year. Other felling such as the clear-felling of mature timber, the clearance of blown material, the felling of poles for special orders and so on yielded a total of 5.8 million cubic feet.
The yield from other felling was inflated for the year by the partial clearance of areas affected by the exceptionally severe storms of September and October, 1961, which caused extensive damage at a number of forests.
Head 6—Mechanical Equipment for Forest Development and Management —shows an increase of £22,750 compared with last year. The Head bears all charges relating to the purchase, operation and maintenance of machines and mechanical equipment. The increase for 1962/63 is attributable to the expansion of the Department's fleet of machinery and to increases in machine operators' wages.
The total sum provided for forestry labour for 1962/63 is £1,896,500, compared with an adjusted provision of £1,854,000 for 1961/62 and an actual outturn of £1,832,000 for that year. The provision for the current year, therefore, allowed for an increase of £64,500 in labour expenditure over last year's actual level.
The average weekly number of men in the direct employment of my Department during 1961/62 was 4,803, an increase of 150 men above the level for 1960/61. The degree of expansion in employment last year was made possible by an increase in the volume of work on the preparation of ground for planting, coupled with an increase in general maintenance work in the existing plantations and especially some rather intensive work in the cleaning of young plantations.
The Estimate for 1962/63 was framed to allow for a similar employment level this year. Present indications are that the employment average will in fact be slightly lower than last year—cleaning requirements this Summer having proved lighter than expected— but a substantial increase in labour costs will follow from a further increase in wage-levels which took effect from 1st April, 1962. This additional expenditure will have to be covered by Supplementary Estimate but I am not yet in a position to give the House precise figures.
The continued maintenance of forest employment at the prevailing level is evidence that the steps taken to ensure that the incentive bonus scheme for forestry workers would not lead to staff redundancy have been largely successful. Any reductions in employment that have had to be faced were due to purely local circumstances, the usual causes being the exhaustion of reserves of land for planting or the clearing up of arrears of general development and maintenance work. Seasonal fluctuations in employment are of course, still a feature of forestry employment for the full year is now being provided with steady employment for the full year is increasing steadily and this number should continue to increase according as more plantations reach the later stages of development. In the long term, direct forestry employment must increase substantially as a result of the large annual planting programme now being undertaken.
The incentive bonus scheme continues to operate smoothly. It is now firmly established as an integral part of forest management. The workers themselves accept it as a fair and reasonable scheme which affords them the opportunity of adding to their earnings without undue strain. The scheme has also contributed significantly to better forest management and the standardisation and improvement of working methods is one of the big incidental gains. More important, however, is the gain to efficient management from the availability of comprehensive and accurate operational data based on work study. The overall effect of the scheme has been to provide a sound basis for the management of the State forestry undertaking in the most efficient and most economic possible manner so that in time the heavy national investment in forestry will be repaid with interest.
Turning now to the income side of the Vote—Subhead G, Appropriations-in Aid—Deputies will note that allowance is being made for a forest income of £678,000 in 1962/63, an increase of £136,000 over the original estimate for last year. Actual receipts for the year 1961/62 came to £574,429, by far the highest figure for forest income for any year to date. Sales of timber from the forests realised £522,000 in the year. The balance was made up of £41,000 from the sale of sawn timber from the Department's sawmills, £10,000 from sporting, grazing and other rents and £1,500 from miscellaneous sources.
The total volume of timber sold from the State Forests last year came to 7¼ million cubic feet, of which 2¼ million cubic feet, or 31 per cent., consisted of timber of 8" quarter girth and upwards and therefore in the sawlog or boxwood category. The volume of material sold in the year was to some extent swollen by the disposal of some of the material blown in the autumn storms of 1961.
The market for all classes of material continued to be generally very favourable. Material of pulpwood size commanded a ready market and there was good demand for heavier material suitable for conversion to structural timber. The production and sale of transmission and telegraph poles increased.
The current year's estimate was framed in the expectation that the volume of sales would continue at a high level and that the pulpwood market would be improved by the commencement of purchases for the new chipboard factory being established in Waterford. In general, the market position was such that it was considered that a target of £625,000 from timber sales for 1962/63 should be capable of achievement. Everything possible is being done to achieve this ambitious target but present indications are that there will be some short fall—but still with an increase on last year's record revenue level.
Now a few words about private forestry. The provision for grants for afforestation purposes—Subhead D— remains unchanged at £25,000. During last year, first instalment grants were sanctioned for newly-established plantations totalling 1,068 acres but the bulk of this planting would have been done in the 1960/61 season. Planting in the 1961/62 season appears to have been at a similar level but it is too soon to make an accurate assessment. My Department's efforts to promote more private planting were continued during the year, at national and local level. Special campaigns were conducted in Counties Tipperary, Carlow, Longford and Westmeath and during last winter lectures on the benefits of small-scale planting were given at 45 centres in these counties.
The level of private planting achieved since the campaign for more private forestry effort commenced in 1958 has represented an improvement of 100 per cent. on the level of previous years. I am satisfied, however, there is still room for further improvement. Since the campaign started, about 2,700 landowners have sought advice under my Department's free technical advice scheme on the planting of areas totalling 12,000 acres. All of these areas were duly inspected by the forestry inspectors, the great bulk of them were found to be suitable for planting and detailed advice on ground preparation, drainage, fencing and suitable species was provided. Less than a quarter of the landowners concerned, however, have so far gone ahead with the job and I would like to appeal to those people who have put the work on the long finger to go ahead and complete it and take advantage of the generous grant assistance now available from my Department.
In conclusion, I should like to say that I hope that the information I have given will have provided Deputies with some picture of the present very healthy position of the State forestry service. I am satisfied that the service is now fully geared to maintain our afforestation programme at the present very high level, to develop and manage the State forest holding with the maximum of efficiency and, at the other end of the line, to obtain the best possible return for the produce of the forests. I confidently recommend the Estimate to the House.