Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and her officials, although I need to disagree with them. I do not know whether the crisis across the whole timber industry has got any better since we started talking about it in this committee. It was going on before this committee was set up. The backlog in the issuing of licences is still unacceptable. That has come across in every meeting we have had and every time we have brought in a Minister or someone from the Department. There has been no visible improvement or internal reform within the forest service that would address the causes of the inefficiency. Part of the problem is that the officials tell us they are waiting for a list of the actions needed to resolve the problems and the crisis. They pretend they are waiting for the different parties involved in Project Woodland to come up with the solutions. Nothing can emanate from that process other than the recommendations made in other reviews. As has already been asked, how many recommendations or reviews do we need to have before action is taken?

Someone spoke earlier about having patience. This has come up time and time again. The people who are in trouble with their forestry do not have time to be patient. The Department and the Minister of State may have loads of time for patience but the people who are contacting us do not.

The Cathaoirleach is from the same part of the country as I am and the people who are contacting us do not have time for patience. As Deputy Fitzmaurice and others have said, people are contacting us because machinery is being taken back. It is no good telling those people to have patience because we are working through the issues. How long does it take to work through the issues?

There is an increasing crisis over the availability of timber and there is no point in me saying anything else about it. That is resulting in a huge increase in timber being imported into the country. The immediate result is an increased cost to important sectors in this area. It is causing irreparable damage to Ireland's standing. The crisis in growing trees within the private landowning sectors is deepening because the issues causing the crisis are not being addressed.

I want a guarantee from the Minister of State that the level of consultation with the people who are growing these trees and who know what is involved better than most will increase. They know what that growing entails and what needs to be put in place. We keep hearing feedback to the effect that the consultation has been pathetic so far. I do not know why that is the case. The Minister of State might be able to tell me. The importance of tree growers must be recognised fully and supported properly. If that does not happen, this crisis is only going to deepen and we will be back here discussing the same problems in a couple of months' time. Will the Minister of State give those growers an assurance that consultation will be better, going forward?