Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for allowing me the opportunity to speak at the committee. I will address my questions specifically to Mr. McAuley. There was much talk of the Mackinnon report during the deliberations on the forestry Bill. We did not get very far on Committee Stage of that Bill. Certainly it was the intention of some of us to speak more comprehensively to the 22 recommendations of the report in the amendments we had tabled to the Bill but, unfortunately, that did not happen.

I am worried about what Mr. McAuley said about the invitation he received to come before the Department as part of a stakeholder group. If I understood him correctly, he said he was not sure if there would be a focus on the Mackinnon report. As Deputy Fitzmaurice said, I tabled a parliamentary question some weeks ago in respect of the chair of the implementation group of the recommendations of that report. Many of us put much stock on that report and its recommendations as a way forward whereby all stakeholders could move with both State interests and stakeholder interests. Is it Mr. McAuley's impression it is the intention of the Department to lessen the impact of that report in some way or not give it its due regard? I do not wish to put words in his mouth and forgive me if I have misinterpreted him but is it his view that the report has ended up on shelf and will gather dust? If that is the case, it would worry me considerably because I would have thought many forestry stakeholders would have actively participated in that process and that it would have provided a template to move forward and progress matters we are discussing here today.