asked the Minister for Tourism, Fisheries and Forestry the contribution he has made to provide productive employment during the last four years.
Written Answers. - Forestry Employment.
74.
The various programmes operated by my Department in support of tourism, fisheries and forestry have all contributed directly or indirectly to the maintenance and development of productive employment.
On the tourism side, while it is difficult to measure precisely the impact of tourism expenditure on job creation, it is estimated that over the period in question the number of jobs dependent on such expenditure by the State was of the order of 88,000 a year.
As regards fisheries, the main programmes aided or financed directly by my Department which contributed to productive employment during the period referred to were schemes for fishery harbour development and improvement, the construction and modernisation of fishing boats, fish processing projects, aquaculture and mariculture projects, the development of inland fisheries and marketing and research projects.
With regard to forestry, in addition to the ongoing work of the forest and wildlife service on the maintenance of the existing forest estate, the principal activities of the service which contributed to productive employment were in planting, harvesting, road-making and amenity development. During the four year period from 1982 to 1985 inclusive, approximately 27,000 ha. were planted, 4.2 million cubic metres of timber were extracted from State forests and sold, 565 kilometres of forest roads were constructed, three forest parks were created, one new large pulpwood processing firm, which had gone into liquidation, was reopened. In addition 2,000 ha. of land were afforested by private owners with the aid of grants paid by my Department.