Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I support what Senator Lombard has said. We have all been contacted by various stakeholders about the norm in other European countries. When we look at some western European countries, it is very clear that farmer-sized forestry can get felling licences without any regulation attached. In Germany, we see that they can still get permission to clear and fell their plantations without a licence in a nature conservation or water protection area. We are all supposed to be under the same level of regulation. How can this happen in other European countries whereas here no matter where someone's forestry is, he or she must go through the whole complicated regulations regarding getting a licence?