Government ministers make positive policy proposals from time to time only to be reined in by their civil servants. Minister Donogh O’Malley’s announcement of free secondary education in 1966 is the most notable exception of a minister introducing a revolutionary educational scheme without consulting his officials, almost all of his cabinet colleagues and crucially, the Department of Finance.
Minister O’Malley’s judged the national mood at the time as “the government was swept along on the tide of public enthusiasm,” recalled Joe Lee in Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society.
Minister Michael Healy-Rae has judged the mood of the forestry sector in his wide range of proposals but it remains to be seen how this translates into support and action in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The rationale behind the minister’s plethora of announcements – especially in the recent Senate debate – would seem to be to generate positivity and action as well as putting pressure on his officials to deliver a viable forestry programme after more than a decade of regression. The minister deserves credit for his enthusiastic approach, but promises need to be backed by action and financial support within his Department.
Appointed Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, within a week of storm Éowyn, he immediately set up a storm taskforce with strong stakeholder representation. While he did not introduce an emergency felling permit, he did ensure that all growers with thinning licences could convert these to clearfell licences and he made a commitment to fast track unlicensed blown forests.
Apart from three storm field events during the first fortnight in April, there has been little by way of action from the taskforce. Issues such as developing a storm damage strategy and a transparent timber measurement system have yet to be addressed after more than four months.
Reconstitution grant
Minister Healy-Rae announced a storm reconstitution grant within 10 weeks of his appointment. It took 10 years before an eventual, but inadequate, reconstitution grant was sanctioned for forest owners with ash dieback.
While he didn’t quantify the storm reconstitution grant, he assured those who remove timber now and replant that they will still qualify for support.
“They are perfectly entitled to take out their timber and, yes, they can retrospectively apply for the reconstitution scheme when it will be in place, and it will be in place,” he said.
The commitment to provide a reconstitution grant is a confidence boost for growers. However, the Department has yet to officially announce this grant.
Licences
Minister Healy-Rae sees forestry licences as a major issue.
“There is no point in trying to make this out to be any nicer than it is,” he said, “after hearing nightmare stories” of applicants waiting for “a year, two years or two and a half years” for felling and roading licences.
He said his Department was now “improving” issuing licences. “People will no more have an application sent in when they will get a licence back,” he added. Time will tell if his ambitious licensing proposals are implemented.
Agroforestry
He told the Senate that he is going to improve the agroforestry scheme.
“The first bit of advice I would give to a farmer who wants to plant agroforestry at the moment is to wait until we improve the scheme,” he said. “I want it to be improved, and it will be improved.”
Instead of telling people to hold off, he might have told them to plant and that they would retrospectively receive any new payments agreed during the mid-term review as he proposes to do with the storm reconstitution scheme. As a result, the scheme has virtually halted and the Department has made no statement on how and when it will be improved.
Land availability
We covered his statements on planting peatland last week. He needs to broaden this argument out to land availability for forestry to include not only peatland, but marginal land – enclosed and unenclosed – that is suitable for afforestation.
His arguments in favour of a viable forestry sector and its role in climate change mitigation were also presented to the Senate by the minister. The current “abysmal” performance must improve if we are “to see people having confidence in planting trees again,” he said.
Certification
Minister Healy-Rae made a commitment to fund a national certification scheme at a Sligo timber marketing event on April 15 and to the Senate.
“My aim is that the Department will be paying for it. Any person who has a forest will go to their forester and ask them to do up a management plan and get it certified. We will have a national certification scheme.”
We will see over the coming weeks and months how many of his proposals take root within his own Department.
“We in the Department have to up our game,” he told the Senate.
“It is our responsibility to make [forestry] more attractive. It is my fault if it is not got right. I am very invested in improving it.”
Clear, written contracts and professional advice vital when selling timber
If the estimated 11 million m3 of windblow is to be harvested, timber mobilisation will need to be at least three times faster and more efficient than ever experienced in Ireland. This means that sawmills, board mills and wood energy outlets will be at maximum capacity to harvest Coillte’s 5 million m3.
Private forest owners will find some sawmill outlets for their 6 million m3 but unless they are prepared to wait for up to four years, they are likely to sell most of their windblown timber to overseas buyers.
The minister and Teagasc have been telling private growers not to panic, but that was more than four months ago. Degrade sets in after two years so there is 20 months left. Unlike the Swedes, there are no plans to store logs under sprinkler systems to prevent degrade so for many growers, exports are the only marketing avenue available.
Despite the storm, many owners still have a valuable crop on the ground. This resource can be safeguarded if clear, written and binding contracts are in place when selling. The Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) Template Tree Sales Agreement is the accepted document as it contains best practice and procedures in timber harvesting and sales.
“The objective of the agreement is to assist growers with the timber sale and harvesting process,” says Donal Whelan, technical director ITGA.
“It’s important to use a good contract and agreement and to get professional forestry advice before embarking on a timber sale and related harvesting activity.”
The agreement safeguards both seller and buyer who can adapt it to their own particular sale including windblow, and including overseas contractors and buyers who may be operating a measurement by volume from a computerised harvesting head rather than weight.
Forest owners who are currently harvesting windblow stress the need for phased payments with deposits upfront. “To ensure timely payments, timber owners should negotiate penalties for delays in the contract,” is the advice from Teagasc.
While overseas contractors and buyers pay by m3, sawmills pay by weight (see page 18). In the case of weight payments, it’s vital that timber is removed from roadside within two weeks.
“It cannot be overstated how important health and safety, and indemnity and insurance issues are in harvesting and sale of windblown trees,” said Donal Whelan. “Every forest owner must ensure they are fully protected in this regard.” The Template Tree Sales Agreement is available from the ITGA website (itga.ie).
Government ministers make positive policy proposals from time to time only to be reined in by their civil servants. Minister Donogh O’Malley’s announcement of free secondary education in 1966 is the most notable exception of a minister introducing a revolutionary educational scheme without consulting his officials, almost all of his cabinet colleagues and crucially, the Department of Finance.
Minister O’Malley’s judged the national mood at the time as “the government was swept along on the tide of public enthusiasm,” recalled Joe Lee in Ireland 1912-1985: Politics and Society.
Minister Michael Healy-Rae has judged the mood of the forestry sector in his wide range of proposals but it remains to be seen how this translates into support and action in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
The rationale behind the minister’s plethora of announcements – especially in the recent Senate debate – would seem to be to generate positivity and action as well as putting pressure on his officials to deliver a viable forestry programme after more than a decade of regression. The minister deserves credit for his enthusiastic approach, but promises need to be backed by action and financial support within his Department.
Appointed Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, within a week of storm Éowyn, he immediately set up a storm taskforce with strong stakeholder representation. While he did not introduce an emergency felling permit, he did ensure that all growers with thinning licences could convert these to clearfell licences and he made a commitment to fast track unlicensed blown forests.
Apart from three storm field events during the first fortnight in April, there has been little by way of action from the taskforce. Issues such as developing a storm damage strategy and a transparent timber measurement system have yet to be addressed after more than four months.
Reconstitution grant
Minister Healy-Rae announced a storm reconstitution grant within 10 weeks of his appointment. It took 10 years before an eventual, but inadequate, reconstitution grant was sanctioned for forest owners with ash dieback.
While he didn’t quantify the storm reconstitution grant, he assured those who remove timber now and replant that they will still qualify for support.
“They are perfectly entitled to take out their timber and, yes, they can retrospectively apply for the reconstitution scheme when it will be in place, and it will be in place,” he said.
The commitment to provide a reconstitution grant is a confidence boost for growers. However, the Department has yet to officially announce this grant.
Licences
Minister Healy-Rae sees forestry licences as a major issue.
“There is no point in trying to make this out to be any nicer than it is,” he said, “after hearing nightmare stories” of applicants waiting for “a year, two years or two and a half years” for felling and roading licences.
He said his Department was now “improving” issuing licences. “People will no more have an application sent in when they will get a licence back,” he added. Time will tell if his ambitious licensing proposals are implemented.
Agroforestry
He told the Senate that he is going to improve the agroforestry scheme.
“The first bit of advice I would give to a farmer who wants to plant agroforestry at the moment is to wait until we improve the scheme,” he said. “I want it to be improved, and it will be improved.”
Instead of telling people to hold off, he might have told them to plant and that they would retrospectively receive any new payments agreed during the mid-term review as he proposes to do with the storm reconstitution scheme. As a result, the scheme has virtually halted and the Department has made no statement on how and when it will be improved.
Land availability
We covered his statements on planting peatland last week. He needs to broaden this argument out to land availability for forestry to include not only peatland, but marginal land – enclosed and unenclosed – that is suitable for afforestation.
His arguments in favour of a viable forestry sector and its role in climate change mitigation were also presented to the Senate by the minister. The current “abysmal” performance must improve if we are “to see people having confidence in planting trees again,” he said.
Certification
Minister Healy-Rae made a commitment to fund a national certification scheme at a Sligo timber marketing event on April 15 and to the Senate.
“My aim is that the Department will be paying for it. Any person who has a forest will go to their forester and ask them to do up a management plan and get it certified. We will have a national certification scheme.”
We will see over the coming weeks and months how many of his proposals take root within his own Department.
“We in the Department have to up our game,” he told the Senate.
“It is our responsibility to make [forestry] more attractive. It is my fault if it is not got right. I am very invested in improving it.”
Clear, written contracts and professional advice vital when selling timber
If the estimated 11 million m3 of windblow is to be harvested, timber mobilisation will need to be at least three times faster and more efficient than ever experienced in Ireland. This means that sawmills, board mills and wood energy outlets will be at maximum capacity to harvest Coillte’s 5 million m3.
Private forest owners will find some sawmill outlets for their 6 million m3 but unless they are prepared to wait for up to four years, they are likely to sell most of their windblown timber to overseas buyers.
The minister and Teagasc have been telling private growers not to panic, but that was more than four months ago. Degrade sets in after two years so there is 20 months left. Unlike the Swedes, there are no plans to store logs under sprinkler systems to prevent degrade so for many growers, exports are the only marketing avenue available.
Despite the storm, many owners still have a valuable crop on the ground. This resource can be safeguarded if clear, written and binding contracts are in place when selling. The Irish Timber Growers Association (ITGA) Template Tree Sales Agreement is the accepted document as it contains best practice and procedures in timber harvesting and sales.
“The objective of the agreement is to assist growers with the timber sale and harvesting process,” says Donal Whelan, technical director ITGA.
“It’s important to use a good contract and agreement and to get professional forestry advice before embarking on a timber sale and related harvesting activity.”
The agreement safeguards both seller and buyer who can adapt it to their own particular sale including windblow, and including overseas contractors and buyers who may be operating a measurement by volume from a computerised harvesting head rather than weight.
Forest owners who are currently harvesting windblow stress the need for phased payments with deposits upfront. “To ensure timely payments, timber owners should negotiate penalties for delays in the contract,” is the advice from Teagasc.
While overseas contractors and buyers pay by m3, sawmills pay by weight (see page 18). In the case of weight payments, it’s vital that timber is removed from roadside within two weeks.
“It cannot be overstated how important health and safety, and indemnity and insurance issues are in harvesting and sale of windblown trees,” said Donal Whelan. “Every forest owner must ensure they are fully protected in this regard.” The Template Tree Sales Agreement is available from the ITGA website (itga.ie).
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