I move:
That a sum not exceeding £25,664,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1986, for salaries and expenses in connection with Tourism and for payment of a grant and certain grants in aid.
I propose to deal first with the Tourism Vote and then with the Fisheries and Forestry Votes. I will move the Fisheries and Forestry Votes at the conclusion of the debate.
The provision made in the Estimate for Tourism is an indicator of the importance accorded to the tourism industry in the Government's economic policy. The importance of the industry and its contribution to the economy were outlined in the Government's White Paper on Tourism Policy. I will comment further on the White Paper proposals later on.
In 1985, out of state revenue from tourism, including carrier receipts, amounted to £691 million, an increase of almost 17 per cent over 1984. This very satisfactory performance can be attributed to the success achieved in our major markets. For the first time the North American market became our biggest single source of tourist earnings. Revenue from North America increased to £190 million, or by 36 per cent over 1984. The number of North American visitors totalled 422,000, representing an increase of 23 per cent on the 1984 figure. Earnings from the European market increased by 21 per cent to £80 million and the number of visitors was up by 10 per cent to 334,000. While visitor numbers from Britain at 1,119,000 remained almost static, revenue grew by 12 per cent to £172 million. There was a welcome expansion in the domestic market where the number of holidaymakers increased by 1 per cent to 3,820,000 and revenue by 7 per cent to £269 million. The number of visitors from Northern Ireland, however, declined by 19 per cent to 479,000 and revenue by 12 per cent to £36 million. Despite this decline, 1985 was on balance a successful year for Irish tourism.
Because of recent developments in Europe we will be fortunate if we can achieve any real growth in tourist revenue during 1986. Our main difficulty arises from the uncertainty of the US market. At the beginning of the year Bord Fáilte had projected a growth of between 2 per cent and 4 per cent in that market. These projections will have to be revised in the light of American reactions to recent events in Europe and Libya. In 1885 more than 50 per cent of the US visitors came direct to Ireland, the remainder visiting Ireland as part of their European holiday. The cancellation of European package tours by many US tour operators will undoubtedly lead to a reduction in the number of Americans visiting Ireland.
Bord Fáilte are still hopeful, however, that the 1986 outturn for the US market will at least be as good as 1984. The board and the other State agencies in North America are doing everything possible to reassure prospective visitors that Ireland is a safe and welcoming destination for all visitors. The board and the tourist industry mounted a special major sales and public relations drive during May in North America for this purpose in which I also participated. These promotion efforts will be reinforced by the marketing programmes of the two American airlines — Delta and Pan Am — who have recently introduced new air services into Ireland. These initiatives should help to minimise the adverse impact of the present difficulties inhibiting American travel to Ireland.
Prospects in other overseas markets are very encouraging. Bord Fáilte are satisfied that revenue and visitor numbers from the British and continental markets will continue to grow during 1986. The Anglo-Irish Agreement has led to a more favourable disposition towards Ireland in the British media and this is reflected in the level of inquiries at the board's UK offices and bookings through the different transport carriers. The prospects for tourism from the Continent are even better. The response to Bord Fáilte's and the industry's marketing drive in continental countries has been very good and business should increase by about 6 per cent. It is difficult to make accurate predictions about tourism trends in the home and Northern Ireland markets but Bord Fáilte are hopeful of expansion in both markets.
I would like now to outline how the Exchequer's allocation to tourism will be spent. I should point out that, in addition to the total of £25.664 million being moved in this Vote, an additional £2.461 million is provided in the Estimates of the Minister for Industry and Commerce to cover expenditure on tourism in the period 1 January 1986 to 18 February 1986 prior to the transfer of the functions relating to tourism to the Department of Fisheries and Forestry. A total of £28.125 million is, therefore, being provided for tourism in 1986 compared with £27.154 million spent in 1985.
Of the total provision for tourism, £27.562 million is being allocated to Bord Fáilte. More than £12 million of this sum will be spent by the board on promotion and marketing. The board aim to spend about £4.5 million on promoting and marketing in the North American market, almost £2.3 million on the European market and almost £2.3 million in Britain. In addition, £2.3 million will be spent on promotions in Ireland and marketing activities such as conference and product promotions, festivals and assistance to Irish operators marketing abroad. The pay requirement of Bord Fáilte this year has been estimated at £9.1 million, of which £2.08 million relates to the regional tourism organisations.
A grant-in-aid of almost £4 million is being made available for Bord Fáilte's capital development programmes. Approximately half of this will be spent in grants under the board's hotel and guesthouse reconstruction and development scheme. The scheme is designed to help small to medium-sized hotels achieve the same standards as their counterparts abroad and is confined to hotels committed to overseas marketing programmes.
The balance of the grant-in-aid will be used to grant aid the development of caravan and camping sites, assist improvements to approved farmhouses and town and country homes and encourage the provision of tourism amenities. The board's amenity development programme, for which £1.102 million has been provided, encourages the provision of amenities and facilities for angling, inland cruising, waterways development, tourist recreation and sailing and equestrian centres.
The sum of £436,000 being provided for the administration of the tourism division of my Department includes £150,000 for a consultancy service on tourist related expenditure. It will be recalled that the Government in the White Paper on Tourism Policy decided to seek an outside view of the State's spending on tourism. I expect this assignment to commence within the next month or two and to be completed by early 1987.
In their White Paper on Tourism, which is essentially a blueprint for the development of Irish tourism, the Government have highlighted the crucial role of tourism in the economy and its potential contribution to future economic growth. The White Paper clearly defines objectives and policies for the industry and for the first time gives tourism a key role in the Government's policy making process.
The White Paper covers a very wide range of issues that have an impact on tourism. I am particularly pleased about the commitment in it to give priority to tourism in the Government's efforts to tackle unemployment. I have no doubt that development within the industry and the strategies and policies now being pursued can and will create many new jobs.
The key elements necessary to achieve growth and the problems that need to be addressed by Bord Fáilte and the industry as a whole are clearly set out in the White Paper. One of the priorities identified is the development of facilities and all-weather amenities to attract younger visitors from overseas. Bord Fáilte are urgently developing strategies aimed at expanding this important segment of the market.
The White Paper stressed the importance of effective promotion and marketing by all concerned in tourism and the need for the industry to be competitively priced vis-á-vis other tourist destinations. Bord Fáilte, within the limits of their budgetary allocation, will promote and create an awareness of Ireland in overseas markets but their activity must be complemented through active marketing programmes by all those involved in tourism. In future, Bord Fáilte will arrange their promotional activities so as to facilitate joint financing with commercial operators.
An interesting example of the initiatives of the Government's new policy was the recent launching of the hotel brand marketing scheme by Bord Fáilte with the full endorsement of the Irish Hotels Federation. The objective of this scheme is to bring unaligned hotels with marketing potential into the mainstream of export tourism business. The scheme has organised 46 small to medium-sized Irish hotels into three distinct and identifiable marketing groupings. The groups are being assisted initially by Bord Fáilte but it is expected that eventually the groups will become completely independent and be capable of marketing their hotels without Bord Fáilte back-up facilities.
The White Paper proposed certain measures to encourage investment in tourism projects. The Government have accordingly raised by £5 million the amount available through the Industrial Credit Corporation for the working capital for tourism schemes. In addition, the National Development Corporation Act empowers the corporation to invest, inter alia, in tourism projects. A tourism development team has been set up in Bord Fáilte to identify tourism opportunities and to match developers and investors to these opportunities.
The White Paper stressed the need for a greater private sector input into the running of the regional tourism organisations. The operations of the RTOs are being restructured and it is intended that the Exchequer's contribution to their overheads will have been reduced to 55 per cent by 1989. The balance of the RTO operating budgets will have to be met through revenue earning activities and contributions from business interests benefiting from local tourist expenditure.
The need for new ideas in tourism and for a more innovative approach by the industry to marketing their products was emphasised in the Government's White Paper. However, while the State can play a role in developing tourism concepts, it is primarily a matter for the industry itself to take the lead in bringing forward new ventures in commercial tourism.
In the White Paper the Government acknowledged that improvements in access transport services were necessary if tourism was to prosper. Competitive air fares and adequate capacities on air and sea routes are essential to an industry dependent on access transport for its development and growth.
I will be monitoring very closely in consultation with the Minister for Communications, who has primary responsibility for access policies, the position of the different ferry services into this country and in particular the future fares policy of operators on cross-channel routes under their new co-operation agreement.
The primary importance of the environment to tourism was also highlighted in the White Paper. Bord Fáilte will continue their endeavours to safeguard the environment by raising the awareness of the community to the problems which threaten that environment. The success of the Tidy Towns Competition in which 760 centres competed last year is an example of what can be achieved by people when motivated by the need to not only protect but enhance the environment. While State agencies can and must give the lead in protecting and enhancing our environment, success in this area, which is so vital to our whole tourism effort, depends in the last resort on the co-operation and goodwill of all citizens.
In my view, the long term prospects for Irish tourism are exceptionally good. With the Government's commitment to tourism development, I see no reason why Ireland cannot increase its share of international tourist traffic.
I will now deal with the Fisheries Vote.
The total gross Vote for Fisheries is £18,712,000. With estimated receipts of £1,206,000 the net Vote is for £17,506,000. Of the gross expenditure, £7,755,000 is to meet the pay provisions for my Department, An Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards.
The amount provided this year represents an increase of 8 per cent over last year's outturn and I regard it as a reasonable contribution to the fishing industry in the difficult budgetary situation in which we find ourselves.
There have been problems in the fishing industry in recent years largely due to high operating costs and low returns on catches. Thankfully this situation has improved as a result of the reduction in fuel prices and an improvement in fish prices.
The aid package which was introduced in 1985 to assist fishermen in financial difficulty has been widely accepted and welcomed by fishermen. It has contributed in particular to enabling boat owners to meet their loan commitments to BIM. Fishermen who qualified for the aid package enjoy the benefits of increased interest subsidy, extension of the period of the loan and restructuring of the system of loan repayments. The effect of these measures was to reduce annual loan commitments in individual cases by amounts ranging up to 60 per cent. The full excise duty on fuel oil used in fishing is also refundable and this together with the fall in fuel prices has contributed greatly to reducing operating costs.
During 1985 the total value of sea fish landings and mariculture production was in excess of £66 million. The value of exports of fish and fish products during the year was in the region of £100 million. The principal export outlets continued to be France, the UK, West Germany, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Egypt, Spain, USA and Japan.
Investment in shore-based processing facilities continued in 1985. Nine fish processing projects, involving a total capital commitment of £10 million, which included State grants amounting to £1.9 million, were approved for EC (FEOGA) grant aid of £4.1 million. There is still room for further expansion of the processing sector and no doubt the position will improve with the development of fish farming. However, developments in processing must take cognisance of realistic possibilities in the market place and the situation in respect of fish supplies, both wild and farmed.
Work on the finalisation of the White Paper on Fisheries Policy is well advanced and as I already indicated to this House, I hope to have it published during the present session.
The Common Fisheries Policy continues to work well and provides the necessary stability for the on-going development of the fishing industry. The various technical and, more particularly, the conservation regulations, which are the main guarantee of the availability of stocks in the future, are applicable in all member states.
With the accession of Spain and Portugal as full members of the European Community, the primary concern for Ireland in the accession negotiations was fisheries. However, the outcome of these negotiations was very satisfactory from an Irish point of view, particularly the continuation of the Irish box for ten years after accession. The terms enshrined in the Treaty of Accession will thus ensure that our national fisheries interests will be protected and that there will be continued scope for further development.
Future prospects for the Irish fishing industry are, I believe, good. The package agreed, on total allowable catches and quotas for Ireland, at the Fisheries Councils during December last is generally satisfactory from our point of view. We secured increases in the quotas for the majority of species of interest to Irish fishermen, particularly herring. These increases for species other than nephrops are in financial terms worth £1.5 million approximately. We also managed to secure a significant increase in our quota for nephrops; this increase, based on average values, is in financial terms worth £3.6 million approximately.
Disappointment has been expressed at the level of our mackerel quota for the present year. I appreciate that our fleet could take quantities in excess of our quota allocation. However, one has to take account of the stock situation. The state of the mackerel stocks is of paramount importance to the Irish fishing industry since the species comprises a major part of our wetfish catch and also constitutes a sizeable proportion of Ireland's fish exports. In order to ensure that adequate breeding stocks are maintained for future years, fishing levels must take account of scientific data relating to the overall prevailing stock situation.
An international mackerel egg survey is taking place in 1986 to give a broader picture of the current state of the stock and it is gratifying to see that the Irish fishing industry, through both the fishermen and processors, have decided to fully sponsor an egg survey off the Irish west coast in conjunction with this. This practical contribution from the industry towards a scientific survey is very welcome and will, I hope, enable us to obtain a more comprehensive picture of the stock levels.
Interest has also been expressed by a number of our fishermen in conducting exploratory fishing to determine the extent of the possibilities that exist in relation to certain species. Should the outcome of these exploratory efforts prove successful, then significant new possibilities will be available to our fishermen because they will be fishing for species for which there are at present no quotas. This is the type of innovative thinking and pioneering spirit needed in the industry. I should like to mention, in passing, that facilities are now available from BIM and the EC to assist the purchase of large white fish vessels up to 33 metres in length suitable for catching the types of fish traditionally caught by Spanish vessels in our offshore waters. I hope that in the next few years we will establish a fleet of this type of vessel, as recommended in the report of the Sectoral Consultative Committee on Fisheries.
The general interest in fish farming continues to grow, particularly in salmon farming. Generous grants are available for both pilot and commercial scale projects to enable further development to take place. The implementation of the designation process provided for under the 1980 Fisheries Act has begun and three areas in Counties Mayo and Galway have been designated to date. Good progress has been made in the designation of other areas. A special unit has been set up in the Fisheries Division of the Department to expedite this work.
I recently initiated the designation procedures for Mulroy Bay, part of Gweebarra Bay, County Donegal and Kilkieran, Bartraboy, Mannin and Clifden Bay and Ballynakill harbour, County Galway. I am in the process of finalising a list of areas where designation procedures will commence in 1986. I would like to stress that until such time as a designation order has been made for a particular area, it is not possible to proceed with individual licensing in the area.
Production of farmed salmon this year is projected at 1,200 tonnes, which is double the 1985 production and it has been estimated that by 1992 production will have reached at least 10,000 tonnes, with a value of £44 million.
A grant-in-aid of £4,868,000 is being made to BIM to cover administration expenses and current developments, including the cost of the interest subsidy on boat loans. There is also an allocation of £1.25 million to the board to meet the liabilities arising from repayment of Exchequer advances in cases where unpaid boat loans were written off.
A sum of £4.7 million has been allocated to the board for capital purposes. The main thrust of the investment will be directed towards the modernisation and re-equipment of existing vessels and the development of the aquaculture sector. The BIM investment will be supplemented by grants under the EC Fisheries Structural Policy.
The promotion and marketing of our fish and fish products at home and abroad by BIM continues to be a priority of development policy. An increased financial allocation was made to BIM in 1985 and again this year under the Government's programme Building on Reality to enable the board to intensify their market research and promotion activities especially in the area of added-value products. There has been some public concern that radioactive discharges from the Sellafield Reprocessing Plant in Britain could contaminate fish caught in the Irish Sea. I would like to stress that, on the information available to me from the Nuclear Energy Board who are responsible for monitoring national levels of radiation, there is no basis for concern on health grounds about the consumption of fish caught in the Irish Sea. I am satisfied that the quality of all Irish fish landings conforms to the highest standards and may be safely consumed by the public.
Substantial exports of mackerel to the Egyptian market have continued under contracts negotiated with the Egyptian authorities during 1985. In the case of the Nigerian market for our frozen mackerel, import licences were made available in the early months of 1985 and considerable volumes were exported. Since April 1985, however, no licences have been made available by the Nigerian authorities because of the shortage of foreign exchange in that country.
The herring market is extremely depressed in the EC because of oversupply resulting from the recovery of North Sea stocks and relatively free import regimes in the EC. Considerable efforts have been made by BIM to develop new outlets for Irish herring products, particularly in eastern European markets.
For 1986, I have approved a comprehensive programme for harbour and improvement works which includes the completion of works in hand, as well as major new development works at Greencastle, County Donegal and the provision of a boat-lift at Killybegs, County Donegal. Provision has been made also for works of a lesser degree at various other harbours and landing places. Following discussions with local interests involved a major development scheme for Rossaveal Harbour, County Galway, has been agreed and an economic appraisal of the project is being currently undertaken.
The total amount being allocated for Inland Fisheries is £5,579,000. Of this a sum of £4,812,000 is being allocated to the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards to enable them to carry out their functions in the conservation, protection and development of our inland fisheries.
As we all know, salmon is a very important element of our inland fisheries, both from the commercial and sporting points of view. There are indications that the stock of salmon as a whole is being over-fished. Catches are fluctuating and in general have been in decline in recent years. I am glad to be able to say, however, that there was a substantial increase in the reported catch of salmon in 1985 as compared with 1984, namely 1,539 tonnes as compared with 839 tonnes. While it is far too early to draw any firm conclusions from that, I sincerely hope that we are seeing the beginning of the reversal of the downward trend in salmon catches.
I am sorry to say that illegal fishing for salmon, including the use of illegal nets, continues to be a major problem and the increasing amount of violence being offered by some fishermen towards the protection staff of the fisheries boards and the Naval Service and gardaí is a matter of grave concern. I condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms. The fisheries laws are crucial to the survival of the salmon as a species and must be observed by all. Here I would like to compliment the protection staff and the gardaí and Naval Service for their work in enforcing conservation laws under very difficult circumstances.
I have long been aware of the tourism potential of salmon, trout and coarse fish angling and, as Minister with responsibility for tourism, I will be paying special attention to encouraging inland fisheries as a tourist attraction.
The present regime for inland fisheries protection and management involving the Central Fisheries Board and seven regional fisheries boards established under the 1980 Fisheries Acts is operating reasonably satisfactorily. Nevertheless I feel it is desirable to review the arrangements in the light of our experience over the past few years and I am arranging to have such a review undertaken by my Department.
A sum of £135,000 is included in the Estimate as my Department's contribution to the Foyle Fisheries Commission, the statutory body responsible for the conservation, protection and improvement of the fisheries of the Foyle area.
The commission's income is derived mainly from the sale of its fishing licences, the price of which has again increased this year. It has, however, operated at a loss in recent years. This loss has been funded on a 50:50 basis by my Department and the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland. The commission's deficit in recent years has been due to rising costs and increases in expenditure on wages and salaries.
The report of the Committee on Public Expenditure on State support and services to the fishing industry has recently been submitted to the House and will be considered by my Department. A number of the recommendations of the committee have already been made by the sectoral development committee and were taken into account by my Department in the preparation of the draft of the White Paper on Fisheries to which I referred earlier. However, I do not wish to comment further on the report in this debate since there will be a later opportunity of doing so.
Turning now to the Forestry Vote for 1986, I would point out that the gross provision for the forestry and wildlife activities of my Department during the current financial year is £54.836 million, which represents an increase of 6 per cent on the expenditure for 1985. That gross demand on the Exchequer will, however, be reduced by receipts estimated at approximately £18 million from sales of timber and other sources of revenue.
Over the past year or so forestry has been very much in the news and, indeed, the subject of considerable public debate. As I see it, the main conclusion that emerges from that healthy dialogue is that, because of the difficulties in the markets for some of our more traditional agricultural products, there is a growing recognition and acceptance by landowners of forestry as an alternative land use as well as a strong interest by investors in forestry as a sound long-term investment. This is, I believe, a healthy and desirable change in attitudes to land use, particularly as regards land that is marginal for agriculture.
The second noticeable change, and again a desirable one, is that it is now clear that there is a ready acceptance of the keen demand for Irish timber to meet the needs of the domestic construction industry, something that regrettably one does not have to go back too many years to note its absence. Thus home demand for the products of our forests is strong. Moreover, unlike some of our major agricultural lines of production, the long-term export market outlook for wood is good, particularly in neighbouring export markets.
As I have said, these are healthy and desirable changes of attitude on which to build for the future. It is obvious, therefore, that we have reached a point in our forestry development when it is necessary to reassess and reappraise its future role with a view to developing and exploiting the asset to the best national advantage, particularly in view of its importance in industrial development, job maintenance and import substitution.
That was why the Government decided in its economic plan Building on Reality to establish an independent review group to examine the structure, organisation and operation of the Forest and Wildlife Service of my Department. As the House knows, the review group's report was published towards the end of last year and laid on the table of the House. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of the review group for their labours and especially for completing their examination in a relatively short period and furnishing a most valuable report.
The group identified the various activities and functions of the Forest and Wildlife Service in areas of forest establishment, research, sale of timber, provision of amenities such as forest parks and forest walks, wildlife conservation and game development. It stressed the desirability of separating the commercial from non-commercial activities and suggested the creation of a new organisational framework in which both of these diverse interests could develop and prosper. To this end the group has recommended the establishment of a commission or a national forest enterprise to take over the commercial forestry activities of the FWS which would operate under a director general and a board of management within the Civil Service and report directly to the Minister. The group's recommendations are thorough and far-reaching and merit close examination to ensure that any changes in the present structure will be in the best interests of the State and the industry. My Department are currently examining the group's recommendations and I have also asked the various organisations who made submissions to the group for their views on the group's recommendations. Final decisions on the recommendations in the report will be taken by the Government when this examination has been completed.
Before dealing with specific points on the Estimates, I feel obliged to make a few comments on the criticisms frequently levelled against me and my Department about sales of timber from State forests. As Deputies know, such sales are made on a competitive basis, either by way of the sealed tender system, by auction or under the large sawlog quota scheme operated by the Forest and Wildlife Service. The real problem that exists, of course, is that the national demand for timber exceeds the available supply and clearly in this situation the FWS cannot meet or satisfy the demands of all sawmills. The tender system is therefore the fairest system available to my Department for allocating the existing supplies of timber. Obviously, if some mills were given all the timber they demand, other mills would get little or none. This would equally involve the closure of the smaller mills and unemployment for their staffs.
My Department have endeavoured to alleviate the situation by what I consider to be a very fair approach to a difficult problem. After long consultations with the timber trade, a revised sawlog quota scheme has been introduced whereby efficient and progressive mills can purchase up to 40 per cent of their annual timber requirements outside the tender system at market prices while competing by tender for the balance of their supplies. I see no other way, in a situation where the available supply is not sufficient to meet the demand, of dealing fairly with firms nor indeed, I might mention, has any better or more equitable system been suggested by the trade.
There have been allegations that purchasers of sawlog timber from outside the State are enjoying unfair trading advantages. Firstly, I would like to make it clear that, contrary to what is frequently stated in public, there is no evidence that such purchases, which account for no more than 10 per cent of the available supplies, are increasing. In fact, they have been quite stable at the present level for some time past. However, I have set up an ad hoc committee under an independent chairman with representatives from the sawmill industry, the ITCTU, the Forest and Wildlife Service and the Department of Industry and Commerce, to examine and report as soon as possible on the allegations that there are factors distorting trade and competition between sawmillers north and south of the Border.
I do not wish to pre-empt the findings of that committee and will say nothing further on the matter at this stage other than to say that under our trade obligations as members of the EC, it is not open to me or to the Government to stop exports of timber to other member states solely on economic or discriminatory grounds. This is, in effect, what I am asked to do from time to time by persons complaining about this trade.
I would now like to deal in greater detail with the provisions of some of the subheads of the Forestry Vote. There is a substantial increase in the sum allocated for the acquisition of land in subhead C1, which has been increased from £4.25 million last year to £5.05 million this year. As there was a balance in the fund at the end of 1985 of £768,000 and a further £100,000 is likely to be realised from sales of land, the total sum available for the acquisition of land during 1986 will amount to £5.92 million. About half a million pounds will be used for the purchase of land for wildlife conservation purposes. It is estimated that a total of 6,000 hectares of plantable land for the State afforestation programme will be acquired during 1986. With changing land prices, the quality of land being offered to my Department for afforestation has improved considerably over the past few years and indeed the situation now is that my Department are unable to take up all the offers made to them because of the limited funds which it is possible to provide for such purchases.
The largest provision in the Forestry Vote is the provision of £29.362 million in subhead C2 for forest development and management. This includes a sum of £20.834 million for labour. Indeed, Deputies may be interested to know that wages and salaries account for almost 62 per cent of the gross expenditure on the Forestry Vote.
The increase over the 1985 provision is due, apart from increases in wages and salaries, to higher prices for machinery, manures, weedkillers and expenditure on the repair, maintenance and running costs of the forest machinery fleet.
Subhead C2 for forest development and management includes provisions of £0.986 million for the purchase of new machinery, and £1.403 million for maintenance and repairs of the existing machinery fleet and purchase of fuels and oils. Most forest operations are now mechanised and my Department operate a large fleet of machines for ground preparation, roadmaking, transport of supplies within and between forests, nurseries and timber harvesting. In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis in Europe on the development of specialised machines for the extraction and harvesting of timber in forests and my Department continually appraise and assess their suitability or adaptability for Irish conditions.
In addition, the FWS hire a wide range of machinery to supplement their own fleet. The hiring of machines not only reduces expenditure on purchases of machinery but provides employment opportunities for local machinery contractors. I am currently examining the feasibility of introducing a scheme whereby the construction of some forest roads could be put out to tender to specialist road construction firms.
The breakdown of expenditure shown in Part III of the Estimate sets out the details of expenditure covered by subhead C2. There are activities, however, covered by the subhead which Deputies may find of particular interest. It provides £4.690 million for the establishment of forestry plantations on newly acquired land and land becoming available after clearfelling. This provision will finance the planting by the FWS of up to 7,000 hectares in 1986 thus increasing the stocked State forest estate to 333,000 hectares by the end of this year.
Part of the sum of £2.468 million provided in subhead C2 for new roads and buildings will be used for the construction during 1986 of 144 kilometres of forest roads and the upgrading of a further 32 kilometres of existing forest roads. Subhead C2 also provides £1.143 million for the development of recreational amenities for the public in State forests. This aspect of the Forest and Wildlife Service's work is very much appreciated by the general public who are availing to an ever increasing extent of the facilities provided.
Since the adoption of an "Open Forest" policy 20 years ago, 400 forest areas have been opened to the public by my Department. The amenities provided at these forests include car parks, picnic areas, nature trails, viewing points and signposted walks. A further extension of this "Open Forest" policy was the completion and opening of 20 holiday chalets at Killykeen Forest Park this year. These wooden chalets are sited on the shores of Lough Oughter, a lake renowned for coarse fishing, and were constructed exclusively with Irish grown timber.
The project was designed to maximise visitor comfort in harmony with the woodland and lakeside setting. A sum of £1.73 million was made available towards the cost of the project under the Special Border Areas Programme. This programme was financed out of a fund created in 1980 by the EC and the Irish Government to improve the economic and social situation of Border areas mainly through the development of tourism activities. We are breaking new ground in our Forest Amenity Programme with this development and I hope the project with Irish families and visiting tourists alike.
The first of the long distance walking routes established by my Department some years ago was the Wicklow Way. Following its success and the subsequent establishment of the South Leinster Way, my Department and the National Sports Council are currently engaged in the establishment of the following further walking routes: the Munster Way, the Galway-Mayo Way, the South Leinster Way, the Kerry Way and the Carlingford Trail. When all the planned long distance walking routes are linked they will, in conjunction with a similar walk in Northern Ireland, form the "All Ireland Way".
Ireland is unique in that 85 per cent of the afforested area is owned by the State. It is Government policy, therefore, to encourage expansion of private forestry in harmony with the State afforestation programme by way of two schemes of grants and a technical advisory service. A provision of £0.855 million has been made in subhead D of the Vote to cover the cost of private forestry grants under the Department's countrywide scheme and the forestry element of the western package which applies to the less-favoured areas of the west.
