Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

Yes, who is at a Whips meeting but I will waffle on until she joins us.

This is a hugely important issue and I am happy to contribute to the debate on it. The Bill is modest but it gives us the opportunity to discuss the importance of forestry to the economy currently but also in terms of its potential in the future. The Bill contains some worthwhile measures but we need to do much more.

Nine thousand years ago, before the first settlers came to Ireland, the entire island was practically covered in forests. That situation deteriorated dramatically to such an extent that 110 years ago our forestry coverage was reduced to approximately 1%, although we have built it up somewhat since then. In terms of the figures it depends on who one reads but it is to between 7% and 10% or 11%, which is welcome. It is far better than 1% but it is a long way from where we should be and falls far short of sustainable and desirable levels that a country like Ireland could support. We need to examine some measures in that regard. We have acknowledged that our aim is to have 17% coverage by 2030 covering a land mass of about 1.2 million ha but the way we are going we will fall well short of that. There must be dramatic intervention to improve that situation but the Bill, on its own, does not do enough in that regard.

The idea of mandatory replanting is welcome. I note that the rates of planting and replanting have been falling. They rose in the mid-1990s but at a significantly lower rate than the target. In essence, we are falling behind on that even though the amount we are replanting is growing.

The levels of afforestation being conducted in the private sector is a matter of deep concern. Like the other Deputies and most citizens in the State, we very much welcome that Coillte was not sold off and that the forestry was kept in public ownership but that masks a situation where in recent years Coillte was responsible for selling off acres of our national forests to private hands. That is regrettable.

I support the measures on mandatory replanting in the Bill. I support also the measures increasing the fines on those who do not do that but we must examine how that will be implemented because we must see this against the backdrop of cutbacks in local authority recruitment, public sector recruitment and so on. Are the local authorities, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or whoever inspecting this area? Can they be staffed to adequate levels to ensure that those who break the law will be punished and that those who do not replant will be made to do so? I am not sure that question has been answered fully, and it must be examined further.

I would be interested to know whether any analysis has been conducted into the area of fuel poverty, and the Minister's view on that. There is anecdotal evidence of people cutting down trees to heat their homes or whatever as a result of fuel poverty. Has the Department examined that? One can understand the reason people would do it in these times of austerity but if it were to catch on we would have a huge problem and our afforestation policy would be significantly undermined.

I am aware also that in a number of areas the local authorities have been engaged in cutting down trees, including in my area in Fingal, often without the permission of residents, which is another story. What happens to those trees? Timber is a valuable crop be it for fuel or other purposes. What happens to the trees cut down by the local authorities and where do they factor into our reforestation policies? Is that an issue the Minister can comment on? It is important to the overall debate.

We underachieve in terms of what could be possible with afforestation. My understanding is that in recent years we sold off harvesting rights on tens of thousands of acres and that the moneys from that sale were used to shore up bad pension fund decisions made by Coillte rather than reinvesting in a genuine way. I am aware that organisations such as the Woodland League and others have called for a public inquiry into Coillte regarding a number of its operations. It has been suggested also that Coillte should be prevented from holding any sales until the matter of it selling off our crop and reinvesting it poorly has been fully investigated. That is something I would support. We must remember that Coillte is a commercial semi-State company; it is not a private commercial company. The role of the chief executive and others in that organisation must be examined and the organisation held to account. The decision to sell off land or trees in counties like Donegal caused a great outcry.

We are under-achieving in this area. I support the Bill. The measures are quite good but they do not go far enough. We have to harp back to the potential in this area. Switzerland, which is half the size of Ireland but has twice the area of our forests, employs ten times more people that we do here. We crow about the fact that we employ 12,000 people, which I believe is welcome, but a country half the size of Ireland employs 120,000 people. We must have a vision and a direction in that regard.

Over the weekend I had the privilege of travelling to Mayo to meet some of the people still battling against the Shell Corrib gas project. On the way we passed through many of the counties that are significantly under-populated and could do with a lot of tree growing, which would be a boost to the economy. It also brought home the fact that in the west of Ireland we handed over our natural resources to Shell without any dividend for the Irish population and undervalued our indigenous industry. We have an economic policy which is based solely on slavishly following multinationals and incentivising them to come to this country to the detriment of our indigenous industry. If we invested a fraction of the resources we give in handouts to multinationals in areas like forestry, which have huge potential to create employment and generate economic growth, the country would be far better off.

I have just come from a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Bruton, where companies that were enticed into this country and got years of loyal service from the aviation maintenance sector, including grants and benefits, are now talking about pulling out not because of anything the Irish workforce did, which is recognised internationally as one of the best and the leanest, but because in the overall scale of things, Ireland is too small to fit into the plans of that global multinational.

We need to come back to base and start looking at developing our own strengths, and key to that is our land mass and our potential growth areas in a country previously covered in forests. We must see areas of land that are completely under-developed as having the potential to make an enormous contribution to economic growth not just in terms of employment numbers, but also in terms of economic sustainability because forestry and so on negates the impacts of CO2 emissions and so on. It is a win-win scenario.

I welcome the minor measures in the Bill, which will help if we put in the resources to ensure they are implemented.

However, they do not go far enough in terms of scratching the surface of the potential that exists in this area.

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