Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to speak. I appreciate the witnesses' participation. I will tell them directly that there should be nothing in this debate that is us against them or vice versa. We should all pull together. When I say "we", I mean officials in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and people involved in the forestry sector. I mean politicians, foresters, farmers, people who cut the timber and people who haul the timber. We should all be working together to try to ensure that we are not the laughing stock of Europe by allowing timber to be brought in from Scotland, England and Russia. Our carbon footprint has been mentioned. We can show others around the world how to grow timber quickly, efficiently and in a financially wise way. It is good for our landowners who grow the crop. We should be able to lead and show the rest of the world how to follow.

The Chairman is a man of great common sense and practicality, and I like to think I am too. At the end of the day, this is a simple issue. We have farmers who are growing a crop and who want to thin or clearfell it and make roads for access. We have great and respectable haulage contractors involved in this operation. We have excellent mills and millers, many of whom I know. I was proud to have given years to cutting timber in a forestry. My employer was Grainger Sawmills and I was grateful for every lorry of timber that I sent out of forestries. I worked with great people from east Cork and elsewhere who knew how to put down a long and hard day's work.

What I cannot get my head around is the bureaucracy that seems to be tying up everything. I am not a person for pointing fingers or taking things apart and asking what is wrong with the Department or inside officialdom, but it is not the farmer or haulier or the person operating the mill who is wrong. Rather, it is down to the bureaucracy that gives a person permission to thin or clearfell timber legally, make the necessary roads and so on. The committee could do a great job of work in this regard, which is why I appreciate my few short minutes to contribute. There is no point in the world in blaming a Minister. That would be nonsense. I have nothing but respect for the new Minister and Ministers of State in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and I wish them good luck in their roles. The permanent government in officialdom is dealing with this issue and I want to know what it will do. I am not directing this question at any one person but at those people in general. What I am saying in a nice and polite way is that what has happened in the past will not be tolerated in the future. I know I can speak on behalf of every politician who is present, as politicians will not put up with or allow officialdom to choke and hold up our farmers, destroy our haulage industry and make us the laughing stock of Europe. Our mills have spent millions of euro on developing major production capabilities and have excellent sawmills and staff, and we as politicians cannot sit back and allow this situation to continue next year and the year after, and allow forestries to go mad.

I am saying this in the nicest possible way. I am not blaming anyone for what happened previously. At times, any of us might need to be told to up our game. I am telling that to the people in officialdom. What happened previously will not be allowed to continue into the future. It is finishing now. The witnesses saw what happened when this matter was debated in the Dáil in recent weeks. Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents were excellent and everyone fought their case. We would have liked it had other amendments been made and for matters to go further, but that is democracy. We all came together and legislation was introduced. There is a new impetus now and everyone will have to pull up their socks.