Forestry has gotten a bad reputation over the last number of years and that is something the new Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture with special responsibility for Forestry, Farm Safety and Horticulture Michael Healy-Rae wants to change.

“Planting forestry, unfortunately, over the last number of years, has gotten a bad reputation. I want to turn that ship around. I want them to see that the Department is pro farmers, that they’re on their side. We want farmers to have a better deal,” he told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“For example, now I’m dealing with a crisis situation at the moment where we have thousands of hectares that have been blown over in the recent storms. We’re trying to address that. There is a task force that I urgently convened.

“The day after being appointed, I was sitting down with the heads of the forestry section. I’ve met with people from horticulture, from family safety, so I’m hitting the ground running on all of these issues,” he said.

Red tape

“What would I like to do differently? There’s an awful lot of bureaucracy involved in getting felling licences, getting licences to make roads. We really had a crisis situation for a long time.

“It’s true to say that I was critical. I was ferocious in my anger at the way people involved in forestry were being treated and handled, but I’m hoping to turn it around.

“We have to provide incentives, whether it’s trying to improve the grants that are available for, first of all, constitutive forestry, whether it’s to do with the terms and conditions surrounding the licences, whether it’s to do with [the replanting obligation] when it’s gone, it’s gone forever, all of those issues.

“They are things that we will have to tackle. They are things we will have to work on.”

Commenting on the concerns raised by the Save Leitrim campaign about who owns Irish forestry, he said that the people that he is representing are the farmers, the people who might have a bit of land suitable for forestry, or horticulture; the smaller operators.

“Of course, we have to deal with all sizes of family farms. But when it comes to big business, making big money out of our land? It’s a democracy, it’s a free country, we can’t say no to them, right?

“But let’s put it this way, there are other ways you could make it more attractive for the full-time farmer – we have a different scheme for them; I’d like to promote that.”

Fresh from a meeting of the forestry task force on Tuesday, he said that the issue of insurance was discussed.

“Of course, everybody should have insurance on their forestry, in particular for fire and for re-establishing that forest afterwards. Having cover for wind blow, right?

“But I have to be blunt about it. Having cover for wind blow, it’s not practical. I’m not entitled to say that it’s not there and that you can’t get it, that wouldn’t be true, but it would be cost prohibitive. It’s not a practical thing for a person to have.”

Horticulture sector

Minister Healy-Rae said that supermarkets shouldn’t use the monopoly that they have to squeeze suppliers.

“The people who produce food in this country are most important. Whether it’s beef, sheep, vegetables, dairy, pigmeat, poultry, they are so, so important. And I believe not enough is being done to protect their incomes.

“I’m very concerned about the recent storms, the negative effect that has had on our horticultural side of the house, I’m visiting people affected in different parts of the country, and I’m engaged with them.

“I believe that we, as politicians and as a department, have to have an open-door policy when it comes to shouldering the level of support that these people need.

“When you’re vulnerable, when you have to take care of financial hit, you need to know that the Government is on your side.

“And I believe that the Government is on their side. Both Micheál Martin and Simon Harris, throughout extensive negotiations with them, I saw a rock-solid interest in farming.”

Farmers a solution

“While in the past, some people in Government might have seen farmers as a problem, I know that this Government definitely sees farmers as the solution.

“Our farmers are the custodians of the landscape, they are the real environmentalists. They’re the people who nurture land,” he said.

“They don’t just like their land, they don’t just use it. They adore their land, and they want to pass it on in pristine condition to the next generation. And yes, of course, they have to make a living out of it, because they have nothing else.”

When asked why he has gone into Government now with two parties he has been very critical of previously, he said: “If I and my brother [Danny] didn’t do this, this time, the question would be, why didn’t you do it?

“First of all, the people involved, Government leaders, came to us. They said ‘we need numbers’, we said, ‘fine’. We had requirements, issues that we wanted put into the Programme for Government. Issues that we wanted addressed in Kerry, projects needing attention.

“I saw a rock-solid commitment to ensuring that older people could retire, younger people could come in. Encouraging older people to step out, but still remain involved.

“They’ll be doing less work, less hardship, but working away in conjunction with the young farmer who’d be taking over.”