A local councillor in Co. Mayo has claimed that the west of Ireland is being “made a carbon sink for the rest of the country” and that forestry seems to be a ‘”racketeering” venture.
Cllr. Gerry Murray was speaking at a public meeting in Claremorris, Co. Mayo this week (Monday, May 15), organised by Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus to discuss rural decline and regional imbalance.
“That’s the agenda. Forestry, wetland bogs, wind farms, solar farms, greenways – if you want that, there is plenty of it,” Murray told the meeting.
The Sinn Féin councillor told the audience that everyone knows that bogland produces very bad timber.
“We have a scenario at the moment, where farmers who planted land 30 years ago in good faith, what they have now – they harvested… most of it is only fit for pulp,” Cllr. Murray said.
“There are a number of cases where farmers planted land 30 years ago; the so-called ‘cash crop’ wasn’t a cash crop. What they’ve got isn’t even fit to replant.
“Forestry is racketeering at the moment as far as I’m concerned in terms of what’s happening,” he added.
Review of forestry policy
Cllr. Murray criticised the difficulties that young farmers are having in terms of trying to expand their farm enterprise.
“On the other side of the equation, farmers are trying to be sustainable and to be competitive. Land comes up beside them and they are bidding against, maybe, a pension fund or a bank.
“There seems to be a gold rush in terms of forestry,” Murray added.
The local councillor has called for a complete review of forestry policy.
Some farmers in the audience questioned who the carbon credits for forestry or bogland belong to, and Cllr. Murray responded by saying that it is important to get a handle on the whole forestry industry to be able to discern this.
Former CEO of Knock Airport and former chair of the Western Development Commission, Liam Scollan, who also spoke at the meeting, agreed with Cllr. Murray that there a “gold rush” in the forestry industry.
Ash dieback
Earlier this month, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue confirmed that an estimated €9.25 million in grants has been paid on ash dieback schemes over the last 10 years.
Two schemes were previously launched in 2013 and 2020 to provide financial support to forest owners who were impacted by ash dieback which is a disease caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus.
The schemes aimed to restore forests “planted under the afforestation scheme” which had suffered from or were affected by the disease.
However, the scheme has been criticised by public representatives and forestry organisations such as the Social, Economic Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA).
Rural decline
Following the meeting, MEP MacManus said: “It was clear from the meeting that there is huge frustration about successive governments’ failure to address these issues.
“A lack of investment in infrastructure and key public services and a failure to protect our family farmers were key themes highlighted throughout the meeting.
“There is no doubt that there are huge challenges facing our communities here in the west and the current approach to regional development needs to change urgently in order to ensure that this part of the country has a sustainable future.
“We need investment and positive discrimination for our region to turn this around,” the MEP said.