Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I will try to be succinct but detailed enough. I thank Senator Paul Daly for his contribution. Yes, we need to find the solutions, and that comes through engagement with those across the sector. Again, it is not just about the industry. We are in this problem because of the way the licensing process was working and the challenges it has faced in that environmental legislation has us where we are. Charging on through to get licences rushed through as quickly as possible so we have all the timber does not solve the problem. The problem is deep-seated. I agree that we have to get confidence back, not only in the sector itself and the supply chain that it supplies but also that farmers have the confidence to plant. I know their confidence has been bruised. I get plenty of calls from farmers who are waiting for their licences and wondering what is the point, and that is not good. We do not need that. There are other planting options for farmers which we probably have not teased out enough in previous policy and which might be more attractive to farmers. Those options will not only deliver an income for them but also deliver for our climate and, potentially, our biodiversity targets. There are farmers who want to plant legacy woodlands on their farms for their grandchildren. They do not all want to plant Sitka spruce or commercial forestry. Some people just want to have a nice area that they can look at, develop and grow. Other farmers might want to get into agroforestry, which has not been looked at at all in any great detail in this country. There is great scope there. There are a few examples of agroforestry around the country. One can run cattle through such land. There are trees in the fields but one still has a normal farming livelihood with it, and there are co-benefits of that. Planting along rivers and riparian margin planting are another way of supporting farmers and their farms. There are options there, and some of them will provide some of the solutions to our afforestation targets.

Somebody mentioned the Mackinnon report. It is not shelved. I thought long and hard about the report because I knew there were concerns with it and knew there was much pressure from one side for the report but not so much from the other side. As I said, I recommend people read it thoroughly because it is quite broad in its reach. It certainly is not shelved.

To respond to Deputy Carthy, it is my policy group. I have set it up. It has not been set up for me by my Department. It is my group, I pick the people on it and they will be announced on Thursday also. It is my direction, and I hope I will bring that direction to the Department. If it has not been there in the past, I cannot speak for previous Ministers or administrations. I am "enthusiastic", although that is not the right word because it sounds too flippant. I am determined and I want to fix this. If I set my mind on getting something fixed, I will work as hard as I can to fix it. This involves engaging with people and also with politicians because we get all the representations from all the various sectors on the ground. We simply have to fix this and bring about a confidence in the sector that we can do so. We must ensure that the 2.3 million cu. m that Coillte needs is not all stuck in appeals. Am I confident we can get all that to Coillte in seven weeks? No, probably not, but we have to signal what we can do. What is important is the confidence of knowing that we are working and that more and more is coming online. That is what we are looking at. The more we can get online and the more we have sight of more timber coming on stream, the more that is a confidence in its own right. I agree that we are importing too much at the moment. It is not sustainable.

I was not quite sure what Senator Lombard meant. On what matter would he like a monthly update?

We need to get clarity on what is going through the system. We have got the dashboard in recent weeks, which has been very helpful. With no offence to the Department that is nothing more than a faint shadow of what the Department got. In a report coming to this committee it is important to inform us of the licensing process and the timber involved so we can get a complete run all the way through. If there is movement, then we are going to see the movement. It is the information that we need. We need a line of information coming directly to us. That would be very helpful, not alone for the members here, but for the industry and for the general public who want to know exactly what is happening with the level of planting, the licences being granted and what they are for. Deputy Fitzmaurice raised the issue of whether the licences are for thinnings, fen licences or roads. To a degree, all the information is there but for the next 18 months we must have that information on a regular basis.