Mr John Browne TD, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food with responsibility for Forestry, today made the opening address to the ‘Forestry – Rural Development in Action’ conference in the Tullamore Court Hotel, Tullamore.
Emphasising the positive contribution that forestry plays in Rural Development including the provision of some 16,000 jobs, the Minister made clear his determination to oppose the cuts in aid for forestry contained in the new EU Commission proposed Rural Development Regulation.

Commenting on the post-Fischler environment and the need to find real alternative land-uses, Minister Browne said that what was required now was a robust and consistent support mechanism for forestry.  He continued: “I recognise the effort made by the Commission and the Presidency to respond to these challenges and I welcome the genuine movement that we have seen in the new Draft of the Regulation, which was circulated just last week.  However, we still have a long way to go before this regulation could be considered as a robust support mechanism in the particular Irish forestry context.”
The Minister pointed out that forest cover in Ireland is less than one third of the EU average. “If we cannot achieve sufficient scale we will not be in a position to realise the many benefits that a mature forest industry can provide.  We will therefore not achieve the economic return which forestry brings to the rural communities but also the panoply of non-timber benefits that accompanies a strong forest-base,” he said.       
The Minister thanked all the stakeholders involved in the policy liaison process and assured the delegates that the forestry industry and the Government are working hard to redress those aspects of the proposed regulation that are most detrimental to Irish forestry.