Monica Barnes
Ceist:10 Mrs. Barnes asked the Minister for Energy the efforts he is making to ensure that there is a diversification of species in our forests.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Tree Species.
One of my priorities as Minister for Energy is to encourage diversification of species in our forests, both in the sense of broad leaves versus conifers and of diversification within broad leaves and conifers. Diversification is important from a number of view points, including the environment, plant health, import substitution, quality, yield and end use.
A number of mechanisms are in place to encourage such diversification. A higher grant rate is available for planting broad leaves as opposed to conifers, and the recently introduced planned recreational forestry scheme, which encourages the planting or upgrading of forests with public recreational facilities, specifically requires a minimum of 10 per cent broad leaf planting.
Apart from these financial incentives, the rules of the forestry grant schemes allow my Department to set conditions for the establishment of plantations, which may include a requirement to plant specific species. While economic considerations will often prompt the applicant to prefer sitka spruce, for example, my Department may require the planting of one or more other species for environmental reasons. The new inspectors recently appointed to the Forestry Service have been asked to give particular attention to these issues.
The Minister referred to a target of 10 per cent for broad leaved species to be included in all plantations. Is that a requirement now in all new plantations, or is the Minister setting higher targets in order to achieve the additional diversification required having regard to the overwhelming plantation of conifers to date, before we became sufficiently conscious of the environmental and health factors that are causing concern at the moment? Are we insisting on 10 per cent on all new plantations and are we doing anything to plant beyond that amount in new plantations to make up for the bias in the wrong direction in earlier plantations?
In order to qualify for grant assistance under the new scheme now in place, which is generous and which has got a good response, it would be necessary for applicants for grant aid to plant at least 10 per cent of the forest as broad leaf. I hope that many applicants will choose to plant more than 10 per cent because there is a desire that we have more broad leaved trees due to the predominance of conifers here and their rather ugly appearance apart from any other difficulties to which they may give rise.
Surely what would govern the planting of broad leaved trees would be the type of land on which one would be planting them? Surely the yield class would have to be reasonably high before we could compel people to plant broad leaved trees? Grants could not be completely controlled by planting 10 per cent of broad leaved trees on unsuitable land. In regard to the species known as poplar, why are they not grant-aided? They are grant-aided in the North of Ireland and in England but not in this country.
Obviously the land quality and type has a bearing on this. Obviously I am not an expert in the matter but I am not aware that there is land of forestry quality in this country that could not carry at least 10 per cent broad leaves. The Deputy should bear in mind that almost all our indigenous trees are broad leaf or deciduous. The sitka spruce and the type of trees that have become popular to plant in the 20th century in Ireland are not indigenous and are mainly Scandanivan, Canadian and Western and North American in origin. When one considers that a broad leaf species like oak covered most of Ireland centuries ago, broad leaves will grow in most parts of Ireland. I would encourage people to move in that direction in so far as they can. Certainly the grant limits for broad leaf forests are very much more generous than those for mixed forests.
Question No. 11, please.
This is very important.
Sorry, Deputy allow me to speak.
It is very important to allow me to ask——
Deputy D'Arcy, I was about to say that progress at questions today is particularly sluggish. Let us expedite matters. A brief question please.
The Minister is misleading the House in stating that all lands are suitable for broad leaf. This is completely incorrect. What yield class is the Minister talking about when he talks about all lands?
I did not say that all land in Ireland was necessarily suitable for broad leaves. I made it clear that the quality of land obviously varies and that therefore the suitability of land for different trees varies. I am sure the Deputy will not disagree with me that the indigenous species of trees in Ireland are, by and large, broad leaved.