asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will have representations made to owners of forests and forest belts to have ivy growing around trees destroyed.

The reply is in the negative. The general destruction of ivy on the scale suggested would be a matter of considerable difficulty, involving a great deal of work from which little or no return could be expected. It is to be presumed that owners of plantations realise that ivy, although not a particularly serious cause of injury to trees, may, under certain conditions, be injurious, and that they will take any steps considered necessary for its destruction without State intervention.