Is mian liom an deis a ghlacadh le fiafraí den Aire céard iad na pleananna atá aige maidir le forbairt na margaí fuíll atá ag na muilte adhmaid ar fud na tíre.
I should begin by giving an explanation of the background to this whole issue. The timber industry depends on integration of the uses of the timber produced from our forests. Contrary to popular opinion there are various different uses of timber according to size and grade. When we go to harvest our timber basically there is a large volume which is not of millable quality and goes directly to our pulp mills. As well as that, our pulp mills use up to 50 per cent of the production of our sawmills, that is to say for every tonne of timber a sawmill processes, a half tonne of timber will eventually wind up in a pulp mill.
At present the sawmills throughout the country produce chips, bark and sawdust. To give an idea of the scale we are talking about in the timber industry in Ireland, we had last year volume usage of 1.5 million cubic metres which would be about 1.3 million tonnes with a value exforest to Coillte Teoranta of just under £28 million. By the year 2000 it is expected that the volume of timber coming on the market in the Twenty-Six Counties, will be 3.2 million cubic metres or nearly three million tonnes. This will have at present prices a value to Coillte Teoranta of about £60 million per annum. Of this production 800,000 tonnes approximately went into saw log and about 500,000 tonnes into pulp wood. The main problem that arises is that of the 800,000 tonnes that goes into saw log, we produce at present annually about 80,000 tonnes of sawdust and about 343,000 tonnes of timber chips. The value to the timber industry of sawdust at present ex-yard is approximately £700,000 where the value of timber chips to the timber industry annually would be in the region of £4 million. Added to that we would have a value on bark of approximately £800,000 per annum.
It is seen that the residue industry from our sawmills is worth in excess of £5 million per annum to the timber industry. Ensuring stable markets for this material is of prime importance to the timber industry because if anything were to happen to the residue market, if any instability were to occur, the possible knock-on effects to the timber industry as a whole and to Coillte Teoranta would be of disastrous consequences.
At present we have two main pulp users in the Twenty-six Counties Finsa Forest Products in Scarriff, County Clare, who manufacture chipboard, and Medite in Clonmel who manufacture medium density fibreboard, or MDF as it its called. In the North, in Coleraine, Sanboard are in the chipboard market. As is obvious, because we are very limited in the type of product we produce from our residues, we are very vulnerable to changes in the market.
In their annual report this year Coillte Teoranta said that, in the pulpwood sector, increased processing capacity will be needed to absorb additional pulpwood supplies and sawmill residue. This is probably an understatement of the urgency of the matter because they also say that last year while the market for saw log and timber stakes, etc., was buoyant, the demand for pulpwood from the panel board mills was less buoyant as a result of increased availability of sawmill residues. If that is the situation at present — it is my information that the pulpmills are not in a position even at present to absorb all the residues and material being made available — it is likely to get much worse in the years to come. Furthermore, by basically having most of our eggs in one basket as regards the type of outlets we have for residues — they are mainly going into the manufacture of chipboard and MDF — we are putting ourselves at risk in a big way and making this industry unnecessarily vulnerable. It is very important that there would be one or two new pulp users introduced into this country involved in different type of products, who would be involved in the international market, preferably involved in products outside the present range produced here, and that they should use the high grade quality chip, the full potential of which is difficult to realise on the domestic market.
The urgency of this cannot be overstressed because, if further contraction occurs within the chipboard sector, the exposure of the timber industry would be at a dangerous level. The possibility of exporting our residues, even if this were desirable, is also very limited due to the transport costs involved. At present high quality chips are being exported from the east coast but this is not an option for the producer on the west coast where, even at present, the cost of transporting residues from mill to market or to user can take up up to 40 per cent of the value delivered to the pulp user. In the case of exports, the cost of transport would exceed the money that would be paid for the product.
On this particular issue it is very important that we look at the likely sources of timber in this country within the years to come. Up to now, most people have associated production of timber mainly with the south and east of the country. While that is true on present figures — for example, in the Bray and Kilkenny regional areas last year the total volume of timber sold was 539,000 cubic metres compared to 332,000 cubic metres on the west coast in the Galway and Sligo regions — the reverse is true when you look at the hectares planted. Due to the fact that this is young timber and has not come on the market yet, this has not shown up in sales figures but we know, for example, that in the eastern region the land held by Coillte Teoranta is 86,000 hectares compared to 154,000, or twice the hectarate, in State hands in the western part of the country.
It is also well recognised within the industry that there has been a large amount of private planting in the west and that the expansion being carried out by Coillte Teoranta has mainly occurred in the western and north-western part of the country. Allied to that is the problem of species. A lot of pine is produced in this country. We might possibly look for alternative uses for pine, because much of it is of such a quality that it is only useful in pulpmills. At present something in the region of 29 per cent of the total timber plantings is pine. If a breakdown was given of the land planted in the western regions in most cases this would exceed over 50 per cent. This means the a lot of the production from the forests in the west, in the next ten to 15 years, will be of a qualify that it will go straight to the pulp user.
It is a fact that, where there is surplus timber available to pulp users, straight from the forest and residues from mills, there is a tendency to opt for the product coming straight from the forest. This increases the vulnerability of timber mills to the vicissitudes of the pulp market.
I would like to ask the Minister what plans there are to build one or two more main pulp mills — preferably in the paper sector — to ensure that an industry that has been nurtured, that is providing a large amount of employment, that is the backbone of a lot of rural areas, that is probably the shining light for the future in some of the western areas, would not be vulnerable due to a lack of action or planning in ensuring that there are adequate outlets for residues from our timber mills.
I would also like to ask the Minister what plans there are to examine other uses for timber residues. For example, it has been suggested that sawdust properly treated can be used in a similar way to peat as an activated carbon compound which is beginning to be used in such things as sewage treatment. We know there is a growing market in the poultry and horse industries for the use of shavings instead of straw and also for horse gallops, etc.
We should not forget as a residue the use of bark as a horticultural product. Five years ago most timber mills were dumping their bark which was an environmental hazard rather than an environmental asset. At present bark will fetch X million in this country, even on the west coast, approximately £10 per tonne which gives it a national value according to my reckoning somewhere in the region of £1 million per annum to the industry. The need for us to develop indigenous bark industries that would market this product, which is an alternative to peat products in the horticultural industry, based on this raw material is obvious. If we accept the fact that the volume of bark will double within the next ten years this becomes more important than ever. I suggest that might be worth looking at; Bord na Móna, considering they have already got market outlets in this particular type of product through the peat industry and also because of their central location, geographically with the country, might be interested in considering this as a possible diversification.
I have always felt from my involvement with this industry that it is one that should be treated on an all-Ireland basis if possible. Timber crosses the Border daily. Timber produced by Coillte Teoranta is sold in the North, residues come over and back and effectively as regards the movement of timber there is no Border. It is one area where North-South co-operation could be brought to a new level if we could agree to use our indigenous raw material in this island and also plan our usages of pulp based on the total production and projected production of timber within the Thirty-Two Counties area. If it was done on that basis we would find that there is not only room for one more pulp user but that there is room for two more pulp users in this country and that the more diversification that takes place in this way, the more we will ensure the stability of our very valuable timber industry, its continued success and growth and the continued contribution to our economy which last year was at about £150 million and which by the year 2000, even at today's money, would be worth about £300 million per annum.
Gahbaim buíochas leis an Aire as teacht, agus beidh mé ag súil leis an méid a beidh le rá aige faoin ábhar seo. Tá súil agam go mbeidh forbairt mhór ar an tionscal seo agus go leanfaidh tionscal an adhmaid le bheith ag réiteach cuid d'fhadhbanna fostaíochta na gceantar is faide siar sa tír amach anseo.
