Confidence in forestry ‘record low’

CONFIDENCE in forestry is at an all-time low, according to the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), which claimed there is a clear lack of vision in the sector at present.

IFA farm forestry chairman Pat Hennessy said there is a real fear that if the decline in the afforestation programme is not addressed immediately the infrastructure that sustained the vibrant private forestry sector of the 1990s will disintegrate.

“At a time when this country spends more than €20 million per day on imported fossil fuels, the afforestation programme is expected to be less than 5,000 hectares in 2008, the lowest rate in 20 years,” he said.