Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Yes. First, I think we are supposed to disclose any interests, whether in the Chamber or here. For many years, off and on, I have worked for Coillte, as my father before me did. I just wanted to let the committee know that. I gave a lot of my time in forestry for Coillte. I heard Deputy Penrose say there are now many Coillte workers everywhere in Ireland, but there was a time when there were maybe 18 or 20 of them drinking tea on one job together at 10 a.m. or whatever. If there are now supposed to be 800 workers in Coillte countrywide, that is about 30 per county. I do not think we have 30 Coillte employees in Kerry, the massive county that it is. I think we are well short of that. That is sad because there are many acres of forestry and ground in Kerry and a lot of work to be done. I think one forester is covering all of Kerry, part of west Limerick and part of north-west Cork, even going into south-west Cork, whereas we once had a forester in Kilgarvan, two in Kenmare and one in Sneem. I do not know how this could run rife with such a reduction in staff numbers. That is my first concern.

My next concern is about contractors and harvesting, although I do not do that type of work. I hear that so many harvesters are getting out and even had to go to England for work because of felling licences not being granted. This is a very serious issue, even for people in the private sector whom Coillte helped with planting. Families cannot extract the timber that is now ready to cut and take out because they do not have the roadways to do so. There are two reasons for this, namely, the felling licence and objectors to the making of forestry roadways. I would like to know what Coillte is trying to do to counteract this because it is very serious. I think in February of this year there were objections to 144 roadways from one individual. That is shocking. As I said, that is having an effect on the work, the machines and everyone who is involved or has been involved in forestry over the years. I refer especially the harvesting machines. I believe people can pay up to €400,000 for them. These people are dependent solely on work on forestry by and large for Coillte and they are out of work because of the situation with the felling licences. There is land available. I heard the witnesses talk about purchasing and planting land. There is a rule now in the Department that if someone wants to plant 100 acres, for example, 80 acres of that must be what is called green ground and the other 20% can be marginal ground. As Deputy Fitzmaurice and I would know, however, many of the places that surround us consist of 80% marginal ground and 20% green ground. We have been asking the Department for many years to reverse this or do something about it. Then we would have more land available for planting.

People cannot operate without a grant. There was a grant previously. This is affecting Coillte in the very same way it is affecting private individuals. Has Coillte been making representations to the Department on this? It is at a standstill, as we can see. Deputy Fitzmaurice quizzed the witnesses on activity over the past year or two. If Coillte is unable to sell timber or get felling licences, the thing is held up completely. That is where the problem is. I know people who have been waiting for felling licences for 15 or 18 months. That is absolutely ridiculous.

How many of the 800 workers are in offices? I have no complaint about staff in offices - that work must be done as well - but what percentage of the staff is indoors as opposed to outdoors? There is a need for outdoor staff as well. In County Kerry I only know about three workers who are going around with bands, organising the work, overseeing contractors and so on. Maybe there are a couple more there unknown to me. I know there are people in offices who, as I said, do very real work - figures and accounting and so on - but there is a need for more outdoor staff and more Coillte foresters on the ground to oversee this. If they spend all day on the road, they cannot give much time to forestry. I know some of the staff and they are great. I have worked with them. They are Coillte people and their hearts and souls are in the company.

They could perform much better if they did not have to travel as much.

People who plant trees have another problem as well. A man who comes to me for his couple of pints now and then told me that he did not get any money out of forestry. His grant was for 15 years. It will be, on average, another 15 years before he realises any income out of it. At the same time, he is helping with the carbon situation but gets no allowance for that. There is much talk about carbon and he says he is helping the situation. We should help those types of individuals, as well as others who suffer because of storms. We have always had storms going back to the 1850s and further. I do not subscribe to the idea that climate change is caused by man, because such things have happened over the ages and centuries. We have always had patterns of climate change. However, people's plantations get windblown because of storms and they do not have the wherewithal to plant them again. That has affected Coillte as well. Has Coillte had any hearings with the Department on the issues I have raised or has it requested that it do anything about them?