IFA calls for more forestry funding

IFA Farm Forestry chairman, Pat Hennessy, has stressed that “additional funding needs to be made available to the Forest Road Grant Scheme for the remainder of 2008 and into the future”.

He said: “With over 40,000ha of farm forestry approaching first thinning, a budget of €9 million per annum for all forestry support schemes is not sufficient.”

He stressed that “stopping the Forest Road Grant Sscheme does not just impact on farmers trying to thin their plantations, but also impacts on the timber processing sector, particularly the boardmills and the wood energy sector that depend on the supply of timber from the private sector”.