John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am unsure as to whether I have had the opportunity to do so in the House since the Minister of State was appointed, but I wish him the best in his job.

I will make a couple of points. I come from a part of the world where there is a great deal of forestry. In south Kilkenny in particular, there has traditionally been a large amount of State forestry. In recent years, much private woodland has joined that. The Minister of State visited some of those areas recently. The importance of the sector to the local economy is significant.

I was interested in the Minister of State, Deputy Kehoe's reference to SmartPly being in Waterford. Of course, it is not - it is in Kilkenny. It plays an obvious employment role that I hope will continue. As we all know, demand for timber will increase during the coming years.

This Bill is primarily designed to update current legislation. Under its provisions, the two separate felling licence processes that can be followed today will be streamlined into a single process. This makes sense. I am interested in the exemptions from felling licences. Perhaps the Minister of State will refer to them in his closing remarks. Under one exemption that does not make much sense to me - perhaps there is a simple explanation - all woodland in urban areas will be exempted from requiring a felling licence. Perhaps I am misreading the legislation. Why has this provision been included? If trees needed to be removed for safety reasons, etc., I would have no issue, but people would be concerned if a blanket exemption for felling were applied to the pockets of woodland in various urban centres around the country.

While I do not wish to go into specific cases, I want to mention the requirement for replanting which involves a large degree of bureaucracy. In particular, where people are felling small areas of private woodland there is an existing requirement for them to replant. However, if it is under five acres it is often difficult to get a quote from contractors to replant. I have come across one instance where an individual undertook to do the replanting himself. That was because it was impossible for him to get a quotation to replant such a small area which he felled due to farm consolidation. The individual was a dairy farmer who had no problem with replanting but he could not get anyone to quote for the work. It dragged on for a long time and eventually common sense prevailed.

I am glad that the Bill allows for more discretion in this regard, because the existing system was somewhat cumbersome. The forestry sector is important across the country. I grew up in a rural part of Kilkenny when there were over 1,000 acres of State forest at the back of the house in which I was reared. By and large, Coillte has done a good job in managing that area. However, Coillte faces many difficult issues, including indiscriminate dumping in some woodland areas. The company has endeavoured to do its best over the years to protect such areas.

The Woodstock Gardens in Inistioge has been a great development involving the local authority and Coillte, as well as others who live on the grounds of the old estate. Therefore, there are good examples of how our forests are being managed. On balance, I welcome the legislation and, hopefully, the Minister of State will have some news for me.

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