Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Apologies for being late; I was listening to the proceedings on the phone. It is an important voice that needs to be heard in the wider debate on afforestation. This committee agrees that forestry can play an important role in the future of agriculture and meeting our climate emissions targets. Sometimes, the third cog of that is missed, namely, that forestry should also be playing a part in good community development. As has been said, this means that communities need to be part of the process. It has been mentioned a number of times that there needs to be better community buy-in and ownership of the process in terms of what is happening in local areas. Do the witnesses have any proposals on how that can be delivered? What legislative changes would need to be made that would ensure that community voices are heard in the context of forestry plans for the future?