Sir, – In Mimi Murray's article "Climate and production conspire to make life tough for farmers" (September 30th), she quotes a Teagasc spokesman as saying "Farmers are saying 'I'm a farmer, not a forester'" as a reason that afforestation in Ireland has collapsed from a Government target of 8,000 hectares per annum to less than 3,000 hectares last year.
This statement is just not true, though what is true is that farmers are discouraged at every turn from growing trees, whether it be the endless bureaucracy or waiting up to two years to get a licence to plant, thin or fell.
Now Minister of Agriculture Charlie McConalogue claims that the State has the right to the value of any carbon credits accruing from forests, whether State-funded or not, which will deny the farmer the opportunity to offset his carbon emissions from other farming activities.
It appears this is a Government that, for whatever reason, does not wish to support the growing of trees in this land.
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– Yours, etc,
GILL MCCARTHY,
Shillelagh,
Co Wicklow.