Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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Finally, from talking to other people in the forestry business, we hear that the forestry service never actually provides an update regarding the status of any application. Some people told us that they have been battling with a slow response from the forest service through one application or another for the last four years. They say that the forestry service never provides them with an update regarding the status of any application. Our forestry service fails at every juncture to honour its obligation to provide licensing within the established four-month deadline, be it completion works or any approval that is forthcoming from the forestry service that is strictly time-bound.

All we have heard at previous committee meetings and again today is about an industry that is going to face serious problems down the road. We are all being told, even with planting now when we are talking about 20 or 25 years down the road, that if we do not get confidence back in the sector as we go forward year by year, we will have some massive problems.

I thank the witnesses for answering the questions. I imagine everybody else said it already but we will continue to question the Department and try to get changes, which we all admit at this stage needs to be done.