The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that the government’s own regulations and procedure were actually “stifling the very forestry sector that the government claimed to want to get going”.
Commenting on ongoing delays in relation to forestry approvals and felling licences, the chairperson of ICMSA’s Farm & Rural Affairs Committee, Denis Drennan, said: “We now have a situation where farmers will have to regrettably conclude that forestry is no longer a viable option having been stifled and suffocated by regulation.
Denis Drennan ICMSA
“There is a clear and urgent onus on the government to address the highly visible bottlenecks in the system because government press releases highlighting the benefits of forestry and proposing various initiatives are completely pointless if we cannot get the basics right – as is demonstrably the case right now,” he added.
ICMSA has written to Bord na Móna proposing that an independent baseline survey be carried out in advance of the extensive rewetting project it has proposed for several sites across the midlands.
The letter contains a list of conditions and considerations that the association wants responses on before the project commences this spring.
Denis Drennan chairman of ICMSA s Farm and Rural Affairs Committee is calling for an independent baseline survey to establish a “pre-wetting snapshot” of the farmlands that adjoin the project bogs, so that all parties have an accurate and agreed picture” of the situation from which any changes can be mapped.