Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I welcome the officials from the Department. We have gone around the houses. Clearly, the forestry sector is in crisis and no one seems to be listening. We have difficulty engaging with the Ministers from the Department. No one is really willing to get up, come down, engage and tell us what is the story. The real issue is about transparency. What is going on in the European Union? What are the discussions with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, the Minister of State, Senator Pippa Hackett, and Vice President Timmermans on these matters? Somehow, the word that is out about this means I am not too sure if the Green Party is that keen at all to engage on this forestry strategy, because it is coming up with many excuses. There seems to be a lack of transparency.

I will take the witnesses through a few timelines to keep the focus. I am conscious that people are listening to this. We tend to talk in a bubble here but the public listens, so we need to set out the landscape for people. In November 2022, the Government announced a €1.3 billion forestry programme, which was for 2023 to 2027. This new programme was expected to replace the previous programme, which expired at the end of 2022. The Department submitted a request for State approval only in April 2023. People can see the timeline. It is now July 2023 and the new programme is still awaiting formal State aid approval by the European Commission. We know that in the last week or two, Vice President Timmermans and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, presumably using his environmental credentials and brief, and the Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Senator Pippa Hackett, have been engaging, but we do not know what they are talking about and they do not seem to want to share what they are talking about and what the hiccups are. We do not fully understand the problems and concerns. What is this correspondence? Who will make it available?

Foresters, farmers and people involved in this sector do not clearly know what is going on. As the witnesses know and can confirm to the committee here, the Department is not in a position to launch new forestry schemes until a satisfactory strategic environmental assessment is in place. I note the Department is having public engagement and consultation. It is all about public engagement and consultation when this is a strategy that should have been up and running on 1 January this year. The Department cannot issue licences or grants for afforestation projects, roads or forestry support schemes. Already, six or seven months in, we have this problem. We need to ask what is going on.

There are other issues with the incomplete strategic environmental assessment, SEA. The European Commission has expressed serious concerns about the SEA. It has also expressed concerns about the appropriate assessment, AA, process. The issue of transparency is important. I am led to believe the EU is critical of the Sitka spruce model. That comes as a surprise. I am not critical of it but the EU has expressed serious concerns about the Sitka spruce model. I also believe the European Commission has expressed issues about the Coillte-Gresham House deal. I do not want to go into the Gresham House deal today but that is also part of the mix and we have a problem there. What is the issue? We know the importance of forestry from social, economic and environmental perspectives. There are many facets to the forestry sector. The problem is that we, charged with the area of agriculture, food and the marine, have not got satisfactory answers. I am sorry to say the witnesses came here with a cut and paste job today. We have read this. I have a Commencement matter on this in the Seanad yesterday. Again, we were told there are ongoing discussions. It is late in the night so I will keep it short. I thank the witnesses for their time.

What are the concerns of the European Commission on this? This is meant to be a Government strategy but we are not convinced that some members of Government are really committed to the forestry strategy. What is the engagement? What is being said to Vice President Timmermans about the strategy? What is the witnesses' knowledge of it? Do they have any knowledge of it? Do they know what is going on? Are they in the dark too, as we are in the dark? Those are the challenges. In summary, we need more information about what is going on. Can the witnesses give us any hope or have they any idea of when this will be approved? Can they shed some light on this? I will come back to them if I have a supplementary question about their responses.