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

Some of the language our guests have used, such as describing the Department as inept and incapable of meeting its remit, is probably stronger than we have ever heard from any stakeholder group across most committees in these Houses. That needs to be heeded. Our guests have spoken about the elephant in the room, and I get a sense they believe the solution is essentially to get rid of the entire forestry section in the Department and start again. They will appreciate that is not within our gift, despite the fact some members might agree with them 100% on it. Our remit is to bring forward policy changes and suggestions. On the particular issues raised with the licensing backlog, what are the policy changes our guests need implemented to address that?

I am almost sure the Minister of State will later reference, and the Department references all the time, the fact there is such a high proportion of afforestation licences that are not utilised. What needs to be put in place to bring somebody who has gone through the experience of trying to get an afforestation licence, to receiving one to actually using it? That is the greatest flag this is a dysfunctional system, namely, people have gone through this process and then do not use the licences when they have them. I ask our guests for suggestions for how we can turn that around.