Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and congratulate him on his appointment. By all accounts and from reports I get from people in Agriculture House, he is working morning, noon and night, which is very positive. I am sure the officials are exhausted. I welcome them here today also. I have a few comments and one or two questions that I do not think will require ten minutes, but I will do it as quickly as I can.

We all know that we need a sustainable forestry sector that can achieve commercial, climate and biodiversity targets. That is a given. We know the commitments in the programme for Government. We know that the Minister for State has special responsibility in this area. There is a focus that we want a reduction in the volume of timber we import and I know the Minister of State is committed to that. He touched on some of these issues today.

We want to actively pursue timber options for the construction of new homes. The Minister of State may or may not have heard Marie Donnelly, who is chairperson of the Climate Change Advisory Council, CCAC, on RTÉ this morning. She spoke about the potential in Scotland, which has a very similar, wet climate to Ireland's and the very high percentage of timber being grown there and being used in the construction industry. We have a challenge here in relation to that. I printed the transcript from "Morning Ireland" this morning and I recommend that the Minister of State's officials do the same. Ms Donnelly raised very important issues. I will leave the Minister of State with one line from her interview on "Morning Ireland" this morning. She said, "The Government needs to ensure the availability of instruments, including taxation, regulation and incentives to be put in place to enable farmers to make the necessary changes." It is important that we incentivise people, not penalise them and I know the Minister of State is committed to that. I ask him to touch on that in his response.

The Minister of State mentioned the licensing issue. We have to continue to work to improve the current licensing systems, which are holding people back. We have had great debate on this and Mr. Delany has been here before. The idea of merging the thinning licences and the felling licences was a good one, which I am glad to hear about.

I have suggested this before but I will do so again. I think the time has come for the establishment of a national forestry development agency. Forestry is one of the few natural resources we have in the country that does not have a dedicated agency. We have the Department of agriculture and Coillte as a State agency is involved in licensing, planting, acquisition of lands, disposal of lands and a number of other things.

There should be the establishment of a national forestry development agency. Why not? It can be removed. That is what is needed. I am supportive of the synergy between the private sector and the farmers, including small farmers, in forestry, as I am of Coillte. We have to make sure there is always balanced and equal opportunity and fairness of hand and approach. However, I am making a call here today and asking the Minister of State if he would explore, with his political colleagues, the development of a national forestry development agency. There is a lot of sense in that and in bringing the experts together.

Touching on ash dieback, I am calling for the introduction of a roadside ash tree removal grant. It is all over the place in Britain. The Minister of State will be familiar with the hedge cutting scheme in Cork, which is only €50 per metre. There is a scheme, however. There is a lot of ash dieback all over the country. Local authorities are best placed to administer this scheme because the reality is they can do road traffic management, which is really important. We have got to take down ash dieback in some way. Transportation is a difficulty. The burning of this product is another problem because there are restrictions on burning. However, we have to be bold and imaginative in how we are going to tackle this. I was speaking to a councillor in Galway today who told me there were councillors there who were using their motion money to subsidise hedge cutting. This is a real issue.

I will finish on this. There is a need for a serious look to be taken at the Department's slight remove from forestry. There is a need to develop a forestry development agency. I would like the Minister of State's feedback on that or at least some commitment that he will bring it to other people in the Department and in government to see whether it can be explored. Would he consider the introduction of a roadside ash tree removal scheme in conjunction with the 31 local authorities?