Mr. Patrick Bruton:

In response to Deputy Martin Browne, we would like to make the following points on the consultation. New interim standards for felling and reforestation were circulated by the Department in October 2019. They immediately replaced existing guidelines at that point. When released, comments were sought for stakeholders. The intention was that the comments and consultation would be taken on board and that a revised and updated standard would be issued in December 2019. That still has not happened in 2022. We have serious questions about consultation, particularly this consultation. Did the Department follow the consultation principles and guidelines published by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2016? The likely answer to that is that Project Woodland is dealing with it, because that is the answer to everything. We would like that question to be answered. We have tried to get answers before.

Deputy Browne asked about felling licences. I fully agree with his statistics. To provide some support, in January, at the launch of the licensing plan, there were 2,023 private felling licences and only 1,317 Coillte felling licences with the Department. On 25 March last, there were still 1,883 private felling licences with the Department, of which 1,481 had been there for longer than 120 days. In that period, the number of private felling licences reduced by just 140. In the same period, the number of Coillte felling licences with the Department decreased from 1,317 to 868. That is a reduction of 449 felling licences, compared with 140 for the private sector. Does that prioritisation of Coillte felling licences happen by accident? It is not due to weekly fluctuations. It is the sidelining and ignoring of private owners all over the country to the benefit of Coillte. That is not a criticism of Coillte but of the procedures and practices of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

There is much more I could say about licensing, but I will move on to biosecurity. We are fearful and have every right to be. We have seen the damage that the beetle has done in central Europe over recent years. The imports to Ireland are generally from the pest-free area of Scotland. The Department has claimed that due to the issues with licences last year, it stabilised the sector in Ireland with regard to the availability of roundwood. If that is the case, why were imports from Scotland at peak levels in 2021? We can have the best biosecurity measures possible, but there is always a real risk, which we are fearful of. The irony is that the Department's reports prove that we have the timber in the country. We do not need to import it, but we are importing it because the Department is not issuing licences to harvest timber that we have in our own country. You could not make it up.