Everyone can whistle his own tune. I would like to assure Deputies that BIM are acting very responsibly in this matter and every effort is made to find a solution before a vessel is resumed. BIM do not want to resume vessels but on occasions they have no option but to do so. I recently set up a working group, comprised of representatives of the board, the Irish Fishermen's Organisation and my Department to study the problem of arrears and make recommendations towards providing a solution wherever possible.
Before passing from sea-fisheries I would like to refer to the expanded role of the National Fishery Training Centre at Greencastle at which an expanded range of courses is now available. The acquisition by BIM of a mobile training unit will take training to fishermen in their home ports. This is a very desirable development and I sincerely hope that it will receive the full support of fishermen.
I now turn to our inland fisheries. The most important event on the inland fisheries side in 1980 was the passing of the Fisheries Act, 1980 which came into operation on 18 March. The main objective of the Act is to update and widen the scope of our inland fisheries executive agencies so as to enable them to cope with the exigencies of modern times. We look to the Fisheries Act, 1980 to accomplish this objective by securing the more effective conservation, management and development of every aspect of our important natural inland fishery resources — salmon, trout, coarse fish, eels, and including sea angling resources for the benefit of our own people and as a valuable attraction for tourists from abroad. To that end in October 1980 I established, in accordance with the Act, the Central Fisheries Board and seven regional fisheries boards, with their fulltime chief officer and regional fisheries managers, to replace the former 17 boards of conservators and the Inland Fisheries Trust which were dissolved under the Act. I am pleased to say that the whole-time staffs of the former boards of conservators and the trust, with their wide experience of fisheries conservation and protection work, continue to be employed by the new boards without any downgrading of their working conditions. Although the new boards have only been recently established they have already shown a firm commitment to carrying out the tasks assigned to them under the Act. The Fisheries Act, 1980, provides also for significant increases in the penalties for inland fishery offences which emphasises further the Government's concern for this valuable national asset.
The most important part of our inland fisheries is our salmon fisheries. Provisional figures for 1980 show that the total weight of the salmon catch by all fishing methods was 895 metric tonnes valued at £3.2 million as compared with 1,073 metric tonnes in 1979 valued at £5.03 million. The overall weight of the salmon catch in 1980 showed a fall of 16 per cent on the 1979 catch which in turn was 9 per cent below the catch of 1,180 metric tonnes in 1978. This decline in our salmon catch in recent years continues to be a cause for concern. In that regard I would strongly exhort everybody engaged in the salmon industry, whether as fishermen or authorised salmon dealers, to comply with the statutory salmon conservation measures which are designed to allow a sufficient escapement of salmon to our rivers to spawn, while at the same time permitting a reasonable exploitation of the stock to the benefit of our commercial salmon fishermen, dealers, processors, exporters and our native and visiting salmon anglers.
Despite the fall in the salmon catch in 1980 there were some encouraging signs for the future. For example, the run of the large spring fish was the best for many years while escapement of salmon to the spawning grounds last year was quite satisfactory. On social and economic grounds I extended last year's salmon fishing season by two weeks in the Waterford and Lismore fishery districts and by one week in areas other than the east coast where the season ended later. I am continuing the extension this year and I have also restored the five day fishing week for commercial fishing. This is as far as I can go to meet the wishes of the fishermen until there is further evidence of an improvement in the stock situation.
On 26 May 1980 I made regulations under the Fisheries Act, 1980, which introduced a levy on the first sales of salmon. The amount of levy collected to date in respect of the 1980 season is £156,161. The purpose of the levy is to provide funds towards the conservation and development of our inland fisheries additional to the money provided by the Government out of the Exchequer, which is £3.1 million in 1981. I may say that I do not consider it unreasonable to seek from persons benefiting directly from our salmon stocks such a contribution towards the heavy costs of conserving and developing our inland fisheries.
In discussions with fishermen and others engaged in salmon fishing and exporting they have accepted the principle of contributing to the development of the industry and my Department are examining suggested alternatives to the levy submitted by fishery organisations. However, if the protection and development of our valuable inland fisheries is to be continued there is not alternative but to maintain the levy for this year at least. I might add that the salmon levy has been provided for in the Fisheries Act, 1980, which was passed by this House last year.
As to the protection of our salmon fisheries, my Department, with the co-operation of the Minister for Defence, arranged again for vessels of the Naval Service to patrol our salmon fisheries during the 1980 season in support of the Garda and the fisheries protection staffs of the boards of conservators. This joint salmon fishery protection effort was well worthwhile and resulted in the seizure and removal from our salmon fisheries of large numbers of illegal fishing nets.
My Department are at present consulting with the naval and Garda authorities with a view to arranging naval patrols of our salmon fisheries with a backup of land based Garda support where necessary during the 1981 season in co-operation with the protection staffs of the regional fisheries boards.
Work on the construction of the extension to Cong salmon hatchery which was started in 1978 is scheduled for completion within the next few months at a total estimated cost of £182,000. The extension will produce 100,000 salmon smolts a year when in full production and so will make a worthwhile contribution towards the rehabilitation of salmon rivers as nesessary.
My Department acquired the Galway fishery in 1978 and I am pleased to say that its operation from a commercial viewpoint continues to be very successful and showed a surplus of almost £44,000 in 1980. The Department are carrying out a research programme at the fishery, designed to provide important information for its future management.
The Salmon Research Trust of Ireland Inc. which is funded jointly by my Department and Messrs. Arthur Guinness, Son and Company Limited, continues its research into the biology of the salmon and the factors bearing on its future survival as a species. A grant-in-aid of £45,000 is allocated to the trust in 1981.
An amount of £100,000 is included in the Estimates to meet our contribution towards the expenses of the Foyle Fisheries Commission. The money will be used to offset the commission's estimated financial deficit in 1981, which is continuing to rise. The rise in deficit is due largely to substantial increases in the costs for wages, salaries and to a fall in profits from the commission's commercial fishery due to the declining salmon catch. I am satisfied, however, that the commission are making every effort to reduce their annual deficit. To that end the commission increased the licence duties payable for salmon fishing licences in the Foyle area for 1980 and 1981, and will continue to seek means of reducing their overall expenditure consistent with the carrying out of the commission's obligations under the Foyle Fisheries Acts to conserve and manage the fisheries of the Foyle area.
Regarding pollution control, much interest has centred around the efforts being made to restore Lough Sheelin to its former position as one of the best natural trout fisheries in Europe.
Recommendations made by an interdepartmental technical committee set up by me include the introduction of a transport subsidy scheme to remove excess slurry from the catchment. I am glad to report that the scheme is working satisfactorily and has resulted in 2.5 million gallons of slurry being transported out of the catchment to date while arrangements are under way to move a further 3.5 million gallons shortly.
The scheme is administered by a management committee consisting of representatives of my Department, the local authority, the Department of Agriculture, ACOT, the Central Fisheries Board, the pig producers and the recipients.
Having dealt extensively with fishery matters, I will now turn my attention to the Forestry Estimates, including the Supplementary. On the main Forestry Vote, the nett amount required this year—£32,011,000, represents an increase of £6,787,000 as compared with last year. This is due in the main to higher salaries and wages, a very substantial increase in the funds for land acquisition and additional funds for forest roads and harvesting operations, but it is partly offset by an increase of £857,000 in Appropriations-in-aid.
As some subheads of the Vote provide for about the same level of activity as last year I do not propose to analyse them at this stage. The main subheads in question are as follows:
Subhead B.2—Post office Services at £236,300; Subhead C.3—Sawmilling at £290,400; Subhead E.—Forestry Education at £160,400; Subhead F.—John F. Kennedy Park at £167,000.
However, when replying to the debate I will, of course, be happy to deal with these subheads in such detail as Deputies may require.
I will now move on to those provisions in the main Estimate which show significant changes from last year and I will also comment, at the appropriate point, on the provisions in the Supplementary Estimate.
Subhead A1—£8,820,590—relates to the salaries, wages and allowances of Forest and Wildlife Service personnel. The subhead shows an increase of £496,690 as compared with last year and includes provision for a limited number of additional posts which are an inescapable feature of the expanding activities of the Forest and Wildlife Service, particularly in the light of the very important developments which have recently taken place in relation to the setting up of a medium density fibreboard plant and about which I will fully inform the House in a few moments.
Subhead B.1—£1,545,000: This subhead provides for travelling and incidental expenses and shows an increase of £296,400 on the amount made available last year. Travelling is an inescapable feature of the afforestation programme and adequate funds are essential if field operations are not to grind to a halt. The great bulk of the expenditure incurred arises in the domestic context, that is, in managing the national network of State forests and supervising the substantial workforce engaged therein; only a small proportion is represented by foreign travel.
Subhead B.3—£146,000: The proposed increase of £61,800 in this subhead, which relates to office machinery and other supplies, arises from the necessity to acquire some additional equipment for the Forest and Wildlife Service at its headquarters and provincial centres.
Subhead C.1: Grant-in-Aid for acquisition of Land—£3,300,000 as Deputies will see, there is provision for an increase of £3 million over last year in the grant-in-aid for land acquisition. I should explain that the amount originally allocated to the acquisition fund in 1980 was £900,000, but when the necessity for a Supplementary Estimate arose during the year the accumulated level of funds in the grant-in-aid was such that it was possible, having regard to anticipated commitments for the year, to utilise £600,300 towards reducing the supplementary demand. Thus, the subhead provision was cut back to £299,700, but, I hasten to add, this did not adversely affect the land acquisition programme last year, the overall expenditure on which amounted to about £1.25 million and brought in 9,700 acres of plantable land. As a result of the substantially improved price which the FWS can now pay for land and also because of an apparent general loosening of the land market, land acquisition prospects for afforestation are looking much brighter and it is against that background that the unusually high provision is being made in the acquisition fund this year. The balance in the fund at 31 December 1980 stood at about £743,500 and this, together with the net sum of £3.2 million now being proposed, means that there will be an aggregate of about £4 million available for land acquisition in the current year — this is, in fact, the highest amount ever provided for the purpose in a single year.
Closer examination of likely expenditure over the rest of the year has enabled me to reduce the original requirement in the grant-in-aid by £100,000 as a small contribution towards offsetting the cost of the Supplementary Estimate necessitated by recent developments in the wood industry field. Present indications are that land intake for forestry in 1981 will be about 16,000 acres and, although this still falls far short of the intake required to support a planting programme with 25,000 acres per annum as its objective, it will at least go some way towards improving the unsatisfactory land-reserve situation which has resulted from the decline in land acquisition in recent years.
The funds in subhead C.1 also include some provision for land acquisition for wildlife conservation purposes and in this connection the purchase of the internationally important flora habitat at Pollardstown Fen is currently the primary objective.
Subhead C.2 — Forest Development and Management: £23,175,200: This subhead which, as usual, constitutes the main focal point of expenditure in the Forestry Vote, represents an increase of £4,041,500 over the 1980 provision. As Deputies will be aware, the subhead, in its totality, caters for the very wide variety of activities inevitably associated with the development and management of a national forest estate which at 31 December 1980 embraced some 370,000 hectares, 900,000 acres, of land, of which 300,000 hectares, 740,000 acres, have been planted. These activities include such aspects as the production of nursery stock, the establishment, maintenance and protection of State plantations, public recreation facilities; purchase, maintenance and hire of machinery; construction of forest roads; and the cost of timber harvesting and conversion. In other words, the expenditure provided in the subhead embraces the broad spectrum of operations essential to the smooth running, consistent with economy, of the entire State afforestation programme, including the employment of a workforce of some 2,700 men.
As Deputies will see, the provision for many of these sub-elements, after allowing for the inevitable increase in wages and prices, reflects much the same level of activity as last year. I shall, therefore, concentrate on those aspects which I feel merit special comment, such as the planting programme, forest roads, mechanical equipment and amenity development. However, if there are any other aspects on which the House requires detailed information, I will supply it in the course of my reply to the debate.
While the planting programme continues to have an annual output of 10,000 hectares, 25,000 acres, as its objective, some difficulties have been experienced in recent years in achieving this target. This is due largely to the land acquisition problems already referred to — but now, we hope, showing signs of improving — and also to an imbalance in the distribution of the reserve of plantable land which tends to be concentrated in western counties. The total area planted in the 1980 planting season was 7,600 hectares, 19,000 acres. The current season's planting programme, which is now nearing completion, is expected to increase the area under State forestry by about 7,000 hectares, 17,500 acres.
Incidentally, the afforestation programme includes the planting of a small area of short rotation forestry which is being undertaken in the solar energy context under an EEC-assisted biomass project in which my Department are co-operating with a number of other State agencies.
I think it would not be understating the situation to say that, with more and more State forests coming to maturity, we have now reached an important stage in Irish forestry, one in which the massive investment in terms of capital and labour over the years — but especially in the period since the second World War — is beginning to show a worthwhile financial return. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that in a situation where from now onwards timber harvesting will be a major activity, there will have to be much greater emphasis on forest roads and machinery.
There is a compelling need to update and replace much of the machinery and equipment used by the Forest and Wildlife Service in connection with road-making and harvesting operations. Moreover, an adequate network of forest roads is absolutely essential to facilitate extraction of the increasing volume of timber — pulpwood and sawlog — to be harvested, and thus ensure that supply commitments to existing and new industries, especially in the light of recent developments on this front, can be fully met.
The need for such expenditure is highlighted by the decision of the Medford Corporation of Oregon, USA to set up a company to undertake the manufacture of medium density fibre board in this country. The advent of this company has resulted largely from the close co-operation between the Industrial Development Authority and my Department in seeking a dependable outlet for forest thinnings.
The Medford Corporation of Oregon is a major US wood-processing company engaged in the manufacture of plywood, veneer, general timber and fibreboard. In the sphere of medium density fibreboard production — a quality product used principally for furniture manufacture — it is among the world's leading producers. Ireland will be its first production facility outside the USA, with production aimed at European markets.
It is expected that the Clonmel plant will be completed in 1983 and, at full production, will employ 200 workers in the factory with a further 250 engaged in timber harvesting.
Deputies are no doubt aware that, following on the closure of most of our mills processing small dimension wood, there have been serious difficulties in providing markets for forest thinnings. We cannot reap the benefit of producing good sawlog — from which the main income of forestry derives — unless forests can be thinned regularly. Forest thinnings are now coming increasingly on stream as the heavy plantings of earlier years reach commercial stage of development.
In these circumstances, the Government — having regard to the considerable national economic advantage involved — last year authorised the placing of contracts, for a limited period, with the remaining pulpwood-processing firms for the harvesting and removal of small material in specified State forests, utilising the services of experienced harvesting gangs for the purpose. Moreover, it became necessary to permit temporary exportation of unprocessed wood in a further effort to keep the forests thinned. The medium density fibre board plant being established by the Medford Corporation at Clonmel will reverse this position and provide a major outlet for our suplus material for some years to come, as well as generating the 450 new jobs already mentioned.
The proposed increases, aggregating £3,289,500, in subheads C.2 (3), (5) and (7) this year, largely reflect the necessity for the Forest and Wildlife Service to set about gearing itself towards meeting its obligations in relation to wood supply, and to that end the funds involved will — in addition to improving the plant and machinery situation — enable a substantial expansion in the forest roads programme to be commenced. I should point out that subhead C.2 (7) also includes a sum of £450,000 to meet the cost in the current year of direct harvesting of thinnings by pulpwood processors under the contract arrangements to which I have referred.
Subhead C.2 (4) — £792,200 — provides funds for amenity and recreational facilities in the State forests. The amount sought, which represents an increase of £86,800 on last year's provision, will be used in connection with major on-going development, to forest park standard, of existing facilities at Doneraile, County Cork and Currachase, County Limerick and also for the upkeep and maintenance, in response to popular demand, of the eight existing forest parks and the numerous other amenity areas in forest locations throughout the country.
Some initial work is being put in hands this year at Donadea Forest, County Kildare which has been designated as the site for a new forest park, and this should mark the beginning of a significant improvement in the existing amenity there. Other areas of special interest to the Forest and Wildlife Service and at which development work is in progress are Three Rock Mountain, County Dublin, and Farran, County Cork which, being adjacent to the major population centres of Dublin and Cork, respectively, already attract large numbers of visitors steadily throughout the year, but especially at weekends. My Department is also co-operating with Shannonside Tourism Organisation in providing a site for a proposed caravan/camping park in that locality.
During 1980, in co-operation with my Department, the National Sports Council, operating under the aegis of the Minister of State at the Department of Education, opened an 18 mile stretch of a long distance walk as part of the planned Wicklow Way. A further 38 miles stage, currently under preparation, is expected to be completed later this year. Much of this interesting walk — which is ultimately seen as part of an Ireland Way — traverses State plantations.
Deputies will recall that provision for a sum of £400,000 was made last year under subhead C.4 to enable the receiver at Chipboard Limited (Scariff) to continue operations for a limited period while proposals for restructuring the company were being considered. In the event, having regard to the level of income accruing to the company under the receiver's management not all of that allocation was required by 31 December last. Provision for assistance to a level of £100,000 is being made for 1981.
I would like to refer Deputies to the Supplementary Estimate — which contains a new subhead, namely C5, which provides £1,293,000 — and put the House in the picture in relation to the proposed restructuring of Chipboard Limited, Scariff, in receivership, and the formation of a new company to carry on the business of particle production. As I have already stated, the general recession following the oil crisis of the mid-seventies had very serious repercussions for the four mills using pulpwood from the State forests. Various efforts — either by way of financial assistance or by proposals for restructuring — were made by State agencies, including my Department, to assist the mills to survive the recession but, regrettably — with one exception — these proved unsuccessful and the industries had to close.
The one remaining mill, Chipboard Limited, in receivership, has continued in production with the aid of a State grant to the receiver and also a special arrangement whereby the firm is paid to harvest thinnings from certain State forests. The Government decided that every effort should be made to save this remaining mill and, it is proposed with the funds provided in the Supplementary Estimate, to enter into an agreement with a local consortium to set up a new company — to be known as Chipboard Products Limited — to purchase the assets of Chipboard Limited, in Receivership, from the receiver with a view to continuing the business of particle board manufacture at Scariff. Heads of agreement, subject to contract, have already been signed and we are working as quickly as possible towards completion of the necessary contracts.
The envisaged agreement can be summarised as follows: The new company will have an ordinary share capital of £527,000. Of this, private shareholders will provide £193,000 and the State will provide £334,000. There will be provision for a share option scheme which, if taken up, will increase the private share capital to £231,000.
The State will also subscribe at par for £200,000 15 per cent redeemable cumulative preference shares to be redeemed by 18 equal semi-annual instalments commencing on the first day of the fourth year. Dividends on these shares will be declared — but not paid — during the first three years, and the accumulated unpaid dividends will be paid in 18 equal semi-annual instalments commencing on the first day of the fourth year.
My Department will provide a loan of £466,000 to the new company for a period of 12 years. The loan will bear interest at the Exchequer lending rate ruling at the date of draw down and will be for a period of 12 years, including a moratorium of three years on payments of interest and principal. During the moratorium period interest will be capitalised half yearly and the loan, together with the interest so capitalised, will be repaid by way of 18 equal consecutive semi-annual instalments. The agreement will provide for review of interest provisions at the request of the board of the company and for the mandatory prepayment of the loan in circumstances of excess cash flow. The loan will be a first charge on the assets of the company, subject only to the security provided to the bank for a specified loan facility.
There will also be provision for the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry provided he continues to be satisfied with the company's programme and the commercial justification for it, — subject to the consent of the Minister for Finance—to provide capital grants totalling £1,012,000 over a three-year period to the company. Grant agreements will be in terms similar to IDA grant agreements. Provision for the first year's grant of £293,000 is included in the Supplementary Estimate.
In addition to the foregoing direct financial provisions, the Goverment will guarantee £400,000 of a bank loan of £750,000 to the company.
The total provision required under subhead C5 in the Supplementary Estimate is therefore, £1,293,000 made up as follows:— Share capital, £334,000; Preference shares, £200,000; Loan to company, £466,000; Capital grant, £293,000.
The agreement will also provide for loans to the company by private investors of £57,000 for a period of five years, including a moratorium of 3 years on interest and principal repayments.
It is proposed that the State will nominate four directors to the new company and the private shareholders three.
My Department also proposes to continue for three years the arrangement whereby the existing company was paid to harvest a proportion of its wood requirements from State forests and remove the wood free of charge. For this purpose a sum of £450,000 is, as I have already indicated, provided for separately in subhead C2 (7) of the main Estimate.
I will, of course, be happy to give Deputies any further details which they may require in relation to the proposed new company.
My Department continue their policy of encouraging private forestry through the provision of grants and free technical advice. These grants are provided for under subhead D which, with £60,000, shows an increase of £10,000 over 1980. An improved grant structure was introduced by me early last year and, while its full effects will not be evident for some time, it does at this stage necessitate a modest increase in the financial provision.
Generally speaking, the traditional response by the private sector in regard to afforestation in this country has been poor and contrasts very markedly with the situation in other EEC member states. However, I am glad to say that there are hopeful indications that this situation is now changing. I welcome this development wholeheartedly and look with confidence to an acceleration of private planting—indeed, to the stage where it can make a much greater contribution to the overall national afforestation programme which up to now has virtually relied entirely on State forestry.
In this connection I should mention that the forestry proposals in the EEC "Western Package", with their emphasis on private forestry, will provide a major boost for private planting, especially in the western region. Final details of the package as a whole are still under discussion in Brussels but I hope to be in a position to make an announcement in relation to the forestry element fairly soon. For the moment I shall confine myself to saying that the grant levels envisaged under the project will afford a most attractive inducement to landowners in western counties to devote a substantial acreage of marginal land to tree growing in the coming decade. It is my hope that, when the scheme comes into operation, it will provide a solid basis on which to start redressing the imbalance that exists between State and private forestry.
In subhead G, Game Development and Management—£444,600 there is an increase of £62,300, due in the main to remuneration of the wildlife rangers. The ranger service, which at present numbers 49 officers, is concerned with the better enforcement of the Wildlife Act, 1976. While an important function of the rangers relates to the hunting scene, their sphere of responsibility extends across the whole spectrum of conversation controls envisaged under the Act and includes a variety of duties such as monitoring the commercial trade in wildlife, census of wildlife species, assisting in special ecological studies, checking game council schemes and so on. Incidentally, in addition to the 49 strong corps of rangers I should mention that some 600 forestry personnel have been authorised to enforce the provisions of the Act within their allotted forest areas throughout the country.
Grants to regional game councils to assist their local schemes for game development are also provided for under subhead G. These schemes, which are drawn up and monitored by the Department's Wildlife Advisory Service in association with the game coucils, are geared in the main towards restocking of gun club preserves with pheasant and mallard, as well as some habitat improvement and educational projects. In addition, grants on a lesser scale are made available for the development of controlled shooting facilities for out-of-state visitors: these projects are sponsored by a joint committee representative of the Forest and Wildlife Service and Bord Fáilte.
On subhead H—Wildlife conservation: £150,000—I should explain, for information of Deputies, that, this year, this subhead is being converted, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, to an ordinary subhead from its previous format as a grant-in-aid. As a grant-in-aid, the annual provision was paid into a wildlife conservation account, the unexpected balance of which was carried forward from year to year to enable commitments arising, but not finalised, within a particular year, to be met in a subsequent year. In this context, the purchase of land for conservation purposes would be the most relevant case in point but, as the funds for this activity are borne by subhead C.I., there are no compelling reasons for retaining subhead H as a grant-in-aid—hence the change-over to a normal subhead and the closing of the conservation account. This change has no practical implications for the wildlife conservation programme and the amount being provided this year will, as heretofore, be used for a variety of conservation-oriented activities including wildlife research, management of nature reserves, publicity and education, and grants to outside bodies towards conservation projects.
The protection of habitats is perhaps the most important aspect of wildlife conservation. Work is continuing on the identification of important habitats, in both State and private ownership, with a view to establishing and managing a representative national network of nature reserves. During the past year I established the first six statutory nature reserves in the State and I will be adding to that number in the current year. While difficulties can arise from divergent interests where sensitive and unique wildlife sites are concerned, I hope that these can be overcome by goodwill all round and an understanding of my Department's role in regard to this important sector of the national heritage.
Much of the expenditure under subhead H in 1981 will be concerned with research, an essential element of the wildlife conservation programme. The research work includes surveys of woodland and wetland, fauna and flora and ecological studies of a number of important species of fauna, for example the fox, peregrine falcon, Greenland white-fronted goose and woodland birds. Grants will be made available to outside bodies engaged in practical conservation projects either on their own initiative or at the behest of my Department.
The Wildlife Advisory Council, which was established in 1978, continued to provide a flow of constructive advice to my Department and I am happy to acknowledge the dedication shown and the valuable assistance given by the members of the council during the past year. The council's term of office recently expired but, as a mark of my appreciation of their good work over the past three years, I have invited all the existing members to serve for a second term.
Public information and education is a very important aspect of wildlife conservation and my Department supplies a variety of information leaflets and booklets on wildlife subjects aimed at encouraging greater respect for wild fauna and flora and concern for their habitats. Recent additions to the range of available material include an attractive poster on the country code and a revised, indexed edition of Wildlife and the Law which is a practical guide to the Wildlife Act, 1976.
My Department is also playing its part in wildlife conservation matters at international level — particularly in the context of EEC and Council of Europe activities. A wide-ranging EEC Directive on bird conservation, adopted in 1979, will come into operation shortly and I am glad to say that our existing wildlife legislation will be adequate for its implementation. The question of the ratification by Ireland of a number of international conventions — the Ramsar, Washington, Berne and Bonn Conventions — dealing with different facets of wildlife conservation, is also being actively pursued.
Under subhead I — Agency Advisory and Special Services — the amount of £15,000 being provided this year is intended mainly to meet the expenses of the Wildlife Advisory Council, to whose activities I have already paid tribute. The reduction in the overall provision under the subhead is explained by the fact that only a token amount is included for the funding of research on timber technology by the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards in the current year. During the past decade the aggregate funds allocated by my Department for the purpose of this exercise have amounted to almost £1 million. While there is no question of underestimating the importance of, or abandoning, the work, it was considered, having regard to the overall constraints in the allocation of available funds, that to devote further substantial funds to this particular work this year would not be justifiable. However, I can assure the House that the situation is being kept under review and, in this connection, the inclusion in the Estimate of a token provision would facilitate an adjustment should such a course be warranted later in the year. I should perhaps add that, aside from the timber technology aspect, the ongoing silvicultural research programme undertaken by the Forest and Wildlife Service is being fully maintained.
As Deputies will see, the vast bulk of subhead J — Appropriations in Aid — £6,599,600 — which relates to income accruing to the forest and wildlife service during the year — is accounted for by sales of timber. In present market circumstances, the immediate opportunities for increasing revenue from timber sales are limited and subhead J inevitably reflects this temporarily unsatisfactory situation.
In so far as pulpwood is concerned, the domestic market is still depressed and some temporary measures, including sale of raw material for export, must be tolerated in the interests of generating income, maintaining employment and ensuring continuity of trained harvesting personnel. I am, however, confident that the maintenance of the existing outlet at Scariff and the advent of the new industry at Clonmel, to which I have already referred, will provide a firm basis for the development of a steady and sound market for smaller forest produce in the future.
As regards sawlog, current prices — which are largely governed by the level of activity in the building industry — are about 25 per cent lower than in the early part of last year. However, in anticipation of a stronger market, I hope to increase substantially the volume of sawlog material available for sale this year but, in the light of very strong competition from imported timber, the anticipated increased sales of homegrown timber may not produce additional income to the extent that would normally be expected. In so far as transmission poles are concerned the level of sales remains fairly constant and I am glad to say that both the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and the ESB are purchasing all the suitable homegrown material we can provide.
While we are facing temporary problems in the area of wood sales, there is no doubt that this is a temporary feature. Wood continues to be a scarce resource in the European Economic Community, and indeed elsewhere in the world, and there is no doubt that, as the present worldwide recession eases, our confidence in our forest policy of continuing to produce this important and versatile renewable resource will be fully justified.
I trust that this detailed up-to-date presentation of the Fisheries and Forestry Estimates, including the Supplementary Estimate for Forestry, will have given the House a good overall picture of the various activities of my Department, the two sides of which have much in common. In pure economic terms, they are jointly concerned with the development, harvesting and processing of natural resources, fish and wood respectively. Notwithstanding their biological differences, these resources represent not only a worthwhile source of employment but also considerable opportunities in the sphere of import substitution potential. From the social standpoint, the two Votes involve activities which generate wide-ranging benefits of an environmental, recreational and educational nature. My Department as a unit will spare no effort, within the resources available to it, to ensure that these very valuable resources continue to be exploited for the national benefit.
I commend both Estimates to the House and look farward to an interesting debate.
