I move:
That Dáil Éireann deplores the cutting down of the forestry planting target of 25,000 acres annually to 20,000 acres, because of the hardships and consequential unemployment that will result to forestry workers and their families, instead of increasing the target for productive investment.
This motion was tabled by a number of Fine Gael Deputies including myself for the purpose of focussing serious attention on Government policy on afforestation. It is extremely difficult for us to deal with a matter of this kind because of the link up between the Lands Estimate and the Forestry Estimate annually. In view of the importance and urgency of the situation in relation to forestry, it was felt that time should be provided to discuss forestry. That is one of the main reasons why this motion was tabled for discussion.
It is to be earnestly hoped and trusted that, as a result of a discussion on this motion, the attention of the Minister will be directed towards a more enthusiastic and energetic forestry programme. It is not enough to say that the Forestry Division go on from year to year planting in the region of 20,000 acres. It is not sufficient to say that year after year we have the same number of men employed in our State forests—approximately 4,500. Our aim should be a more ambitious, a more realistic, a more energetic and more determined programme of forestry. No one knows better than the Minister who is responsible for forestry that there was one stage in our history when the entire country was a forest. Now we find that our forests are disappearing except for the activities of the Minister's Department in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, in the Wicklow Mountains and elsewhere. Vast areas of wooded land have tended to disappear in recent times.
There are thousands of acres of cutaway bog in this country. There are thousands of acres of mountain slopes. There are some thousands of acres of land of the poorest possible quality, unsuited and unfit for agricultural purposes, which could be turned into excellent and profitable forests. I wonder if any survey has been carried out in the Forestry Division of all the land in the country. We have two types of land—land that is available for agricultural purposes only, and waste land which is producing nothing and is of no economic value.
I submit that thousands of acres of uneconomic land, mountain slopes, bogland and wasteland could be put to great economic use. I put it to the Minister that in every county in Ireland today, side by side with useful and productive agricultural land, there is a vast amount of wasteland which is producing nothing and which has not been planted. No effort has been made to plant it either privately or publicly or by any concern. The Forestry Division will not in our lifetime reach on all the pockets of wasteland which are available for planting purposes.
It is correct to say that nowadays the Forestry Division are concentrating on large tracts of land which could be developed economically for forestry purposes, but there are large tracks of land in isolated districts which, in my opinion, could be described as excellent land for planting purposes. Fine Gael are deeply concerned about the whole set-up in relation to forestry. We are dissatisfied with the progress. We are dissatisfied with the amount of planting projected for the future. We are dissatisfied at the absence of a progressive policy for forestry expansion.
The Committee on Irish Forestry which was appointed by the Department of Agriculture in 1907 was the last of many commissions. This commission was asked to make a report on the suitability of the land of this country for forestry purposes. As I said on the debate on the Estimate, this commission, appointed by the Department of Agriculture in 1907, consisting of men of experience and expert knowledge, reported that, from the point of view of soil and climate for forestry purposes, Ireland is particularly well favoured. There can be no doubt whatsoever of our capacity to grow timber. Is it not extraordinary, in the light of the opinion of those outstanding experts, that no great drive has been put into forestry expansion. In any country with a prosperous forestry policy and where, in years past, a solid foundation was laid by the expansion of forestry and the planting of the wastelands, by the time these forests were growing for about 30 years, we saw, springing from them, the woodpulp industry and numerous other industries such as saw-mills, wood-working industries and paper mills.
Now, with the manner in which our Forestry Division have been, shall I say, "tinkering" with forestry over the past 25 or 30 years, when do we hope in this country to be able to generate any of the industries that spring from forestry? When do we hope to see an expansion of woodpulp? When do we hope to see an expansion of paper mills? When do we hope to see the production of the other commodities that come from the byproducts of timber?
Consider Sweden, Norway, Germany and other countries. In comparison to the great expansion and the great drive they have in forestry, we seem just to be planting a bush. Let us tackle this problem in a more courageous manner. Let us have a long-term forestry programme. Let us endeavour to plant every single acre of wasteland, every single acre of land that is not used for agricultural purposes. For our size, there must be no other country in the world with as much waste and uneconomic land as we have.
I agree very fully that it would be wrong to contemplate the planting of land that is suitable for agricultural purposes but, with our vast amount of bogland and wasteland which is yielding no return to its owners, the Forestry Division have a duty to give a lead and to carry out an extensive forestry programme which will also mean the provision of useful and valuable employment in rural Ireland. Useful and valuable employment could be provided in the Gaeltacht areas and in the west of Ireland also by an energetic forestry programme. I am satisfied a very substantially increased number of persons could be employed all the year round on forestry work—on the preparation of the land, on the seasonal thinnings and in forestry operations in the midlands as well as in every part of our country, if the Division will undertake the necessary progressive and extensive programme.
It is no harm for us to take the example of Sweden where 150,000 men, the great majority of whom are small farmers and agricultural workers, are employed in the forests in winter and return to their own smallholdings and farm work in the spring. By working hand in hand with an energetic and enthusiastic forestry programme, our small farmers and agricultural workers would have very convenient and very handy work in their own districts and localities. What can be done in this regard in Sweden can most certainly be done in Ireland. What has proved successful in Sweden in this respect can be proved successful in this country.
Time and time again, we have been considering ways and means of keeping our people in rural Ireland. I respectfully submit that one way is to provide employment for them there. Forestry is the most obvious type of employment that can readily be made available by any Government prepared wisely to invest money in it. Investment in forestry will not pay dividends hastily. Nevertheless, it is a sound national investment. Any money we invest in forestry is money well spent. Our criticism, and the criticism of many people in this country, is that not enough has been spent on forestry here and that not enough acreage is being covered. There is not evidence of scenery provided by trees and of the grandeur of trees in many parts of this country. I have not had, and indeed this House has not had, any satisfactory explanation from the Minister for Lands on the occasion of his Estimate or on any occasion, nor indeed from his predecessor, as to why there cannot be a greater amount of work carried out in the Gaeltacht by the Forestry Department. Is it suggested that it is because the climate is not suitable? With that I would thoroughly disagree. Is it because there is there an open, wide countryside which would afford no shelter from the great Atlantic? With that also I would disagree.
I have been told and have read on more than one occasion that the strong Atlantic winds render the west of Ireland unsuitable for a great expansion of forestry activities in that area. The French Government carried out extensive forestry development in congested districts and they had to face far greater natural difficulties than we have had to face here. We have seen the extraordinarily fine forests on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, open to the full force of Atlantic storms. Yet, the west of Ireland has been stripped practically naked of the trees that were there and no great exercise on the part of the Forestry Division has been carried out either to provide additional employment on forestry work or to beautify the country by substantial planting. Our best effort is 4,500 men approximately on forestry work. We have had a Forestry Division since the foundation of the State and if one is to judge their activities by the fact that there are 4,500 forestry workers, that in itself falls far short of an energetic forestry programme. In 1967, 20,000 acres were planted. That leaves room for substantial improvement.
There are many people in this country who are deeply concerned about forestry development not alone from the point of view of beautifying the countryside but from the point of view of providing profitable employment in rural areas. They are interested also from the drainage point of view. Where there is energetic forestry development the problem of serious flooding is mitigated and rainfall is reduced.
I am sure the Minister has had an opportunity of visiting forests outside this country. The plantations and great forests which he saw must have induced a certain amount of envy because similar progress has not been made in this country. It is high time that this matter was tackled in a more serious and determined manner.
Even in England, a highly industrialised country, where there is a great division between the land used for agricultural purposes and that used for forestry, in recent years there has been a very considerable increase in the acreage for forestry. In this country, as usual, we appear to be lagging behind. Until this matter is tackled county by county there will not be any progress.
I wonder whether consideration might be given by the Government or indeed by an all-Party committee of this House at some future time to the question of whether it might be in the best interests of afforestation to abolish the Forestry Division as at present constituted and to set up a board similar to the board that was set up with such very good results for the development of our bogs. If at the time Bord na Móna was established a similar board had been established and charged with responsibility for forestry, the acquisition of land for afforestation, the preparation of the lands, planting and the provision of employment, far greater progress would have been made because that board would have been called upon to give an account of their stewardship and would have been subject to more critical review than the Forestry Division have been subjected to here in the debates on the Estimates.
I have little doubt that on such an important motion as this the Minister will intervene. I would ask him to say honestly whether he is completely happy that the present forestry set-up is efficient, that it is providing the maximum amount of employment and is satisfied with the rate of progress? I doubt whether any Minister for Lands can be satisfied with the picture of forestry as we see it here.
There appears to have been no cooperation or no link-up between the Forestry Division and private planting. The board which I have suggested should also be obliged to assist private planting.