Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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We have gone over time. I thank the witnesses for their engagement. As can be seen clearly, there is great frustration on our side over the issues facing the sector. I hope we will not have to return to the matter in the near future, but the licensing issue has to be sorted out. The sector cannot survive with the licensing output that has obtained in recent years. It just cannot function. There have to be licences for afforestation, thinning, felling and roads. We are not talking about something in the future; this has to happen now. We will closely monitor the issue of licences over the coming weeks. I hope we will not have to address it again as a committee but, if so, we will not be afraid to do so.

Members, including Senator Boyhan and Deputies Carthy and Martin Browne, wanted to raise other issues that affect the forestry sector, so we will need to have a further meeting in the near future to discuss them. Today's meeting was intended specifically to address the issue of licences and the disaster in the forestry sector. I thank members for their engagement. We look forward to seeing significant progress in the sector immediately.

I propose we suspend the meeting for 30 minutes before meeting in private session on MS Teams.