Stapleton outlines challenges facing Forest Windblow Taskforce
The Irish Farmers' Association's (IFA) forestry chair, Pardraic Stapleton has said that the number of truck drivers is 'biggest overall challenge' facing the Forest Windblow Taskforce.
Stapleton told Agriland that industry is working with international recruitment firms for drivers, but getting work permits is a concern.
He said: 'The likes of South Africa is favourable as a country to go and get drivers. They drive on the same side of the road.
'To get work permits in is a bit of a process, a lot of those permits go through the same department as asylum seekers. That department is, I would say, overloaded with work. We would hope that there is some accommodation made on that score. That is the big one, whether we can overcome it or not, I don't know,' Stapleton explained.
According to Stapleton, 'the clock is ticking' to lift timber that was damaged by Storm Éowyn and Storm Darragh earlier this year.
'Timber on the ground is a perishable commoditiy. It is a concern, whether we have the capacity to get through it or not. It is all down to how we are able, as a country, to get drivers,' Stapleton said.
'There is recruitment going on, but it's trying to get them trained up before they come here, and assimilate into the way we work, our rules of the road, what to expect, that work is going on over there.'
'If it is a thing they are not allowed onto the road until they are fully permitted, it's going to be too late. It's going to need a whole of government approach to get timber lifted off the ground,' Stapleton added.
Forest Windblow Taskforce
Stapleton also said, that no compensation has been given to forestry farmers impacted by windblow earlier this year.
However, Stapleton welcomed the commitment of the Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Michael Healy-Rae that there will be a reconstitution grant.
Stapleton said: 'We have gone to the taskforce with out concerns. We do not have the capacity to replant that amount of land within the two year timeframe that a license requires.
'I welcome the fact that the minister has given a bit of leeway on this, and he will allow time for that work to commence. Anyone picking up their timber now, will also be eligible for the reconstitution grant. That's a huge weight off.'
'The volume of timber on the ground is a long way off where it should have been. The economics of picking up that timber now, and replanting it without a reconstitution grant, it's not financially viable,' the IFA chair added.
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