Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will put my cards on the table. I worked in the forestry service for a number of years and know a fair bit about it. I have knowledge about the background of forestry and am passionate about it. The Government and the State should be doing an awful lot more about forestry. When we look at the graph that goes from 1998 to 2020, we see in 1998 that 10,002 ha - I think it is hectares - were planted by the private sector, whereas in 2020 it was 2,434 ha. There is something happening here. Somebody has to put their hands up. I cannot understand why the same amount of activity that happened in 1998 is not happening in 2020. In today's post I got the Teagasc magazine, Today's Farm. In it is a two-page spread about the new afforestation programme. I understand that has to go to Europe and the Department is not taking applications. Can both the Minister and Minister of State say, with their hands on their hearts, that they do not foresee any problems when this application goes to Europe and that we will be able to get clearance from Europe as soon as possible?