JOHN PHELAN,
Madam, - The excellent Editorial (November 22nd) described the decision by the Minister for Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern, to cut budgetary expenditure by 22 per cent as a gross political and economic misjudgment. That is so, but the reference to a 22 per cent cut actually understated the position. State funding of the development of the forestry sector includes a large amount of pre-committed expenditure, mainly premiums and grants for forestry owners who have already planted.
The Minister of State at the Department, Mr John Browne, has already given a commitment in the Dáil last week that those items will not be cut, for which we are grateful. Our understanding is that pre-committed expenditure amounts to about €50 million. Therefore the cuts will be carried across the remaining spending which is used primarily to finance the expansion of the national forest estate.
Funding has been slashed virtually in half from the approximately €63 million available for forestry development in 2002 to approximately €33 million in 2003. That halving of expenditure, if left to stand, will have a devastating effect on jobs, businesses and the emerging forestry economy. The misleading press release issued from Minister Ahern's office with the Book of Estimates which, for instance, seriously understated 1997 expenditure, leads to questions about the information available to the Minister or his understanding of it.
There are serious issues arising from these cuts apart from the immediately devastating effect spelt out in your Editorial. There is, for instance, the issue of the State role in forestry and that of private owners and businesses. Most of us in the business do not believe that the Government has deliberately set about destroying the emerging private sector as a significant competitive force in forest ownership and forestry services.
However, if the Government persists, having been informed of the consequences, we can draw only one conclusion. What better way to wreck an emerging sector than suddenly to withdraw support after having encouraged development and investment on a significant scale in response to the Government/EU-agreed Rural Development Plan published just two years ago and previous commitments.
We do not know if 2003 is intended to be a once-off slashing or whether it is a permanent downgrading. The immediate reinstatement of at least €20 million of funding could enable the funding of the key priority areas including the planting programme, protection of forest owner timber incomes, and the continuation of market and product development.
That expenditure must now be viewed in the context of saving jobs, saving from destruction millions of trees grown over the last three years, and keeping reasonably intact the infrastructure which has delivered for Government over the last five years. A correction, followed by serious dialogue about the future, is urgently needed. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN PHELAN, Director, Woodland Contractors Limited, Merchants Road, Galway.