Brian Leddin (Limerick City, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. McAuley and Mr. O’Brien for their statements and contributions so far. Mr. O'Brien elaborated on the crisis in the sector and I thank him for his comments. The statement refers to the longer-term reforms that are required and, if he can, he might elaborate on those. I know we are here to talk about the current crisis and he has also touched on that.

We are trying to embark on a very ambitious programme of development of the industry in the coming years and decades and with the current crisis it does not bode well for the future if we cannot solve that. I ask Mr. McAuley to elaborate on what he sees as the medium-term to longer-term reforms that are required. In his opening statement he spoke about moving from a licensing model to a regulatory model that would not require a fresh licence for every activity. He might elaborate on that, the move towards a more close to nature approach and also a broadleaf based forestry model.