Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 25 October 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's Response to Ash Dieback: Limerick and Tipperary Woodland Owners
Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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There are no further contributors. From my point of view, having heard the deliberations all evening, I go back to the outset, when I welcomed the witnesses' welcoming of the review. On your final contribution, Mr. White, not to finish on a negative note, it was a long, hard journey to get here, a journey that should never have to have been made. The LTWO was given a torrid time during all that intervening time but did welcome the review, and I welcome the fact that it welcomed the review.
I am very taken aback, however, by what you said, Mr. White, about your conversation with the Minister of State when you met and that you have not heard anything since. The review states that the people affected are to have an active input going forward. From the committee's point of view, at our next private meeting I will brief the Chair beforehand. Unfortunately, he could not come back; he got detained somewhere else. We will raise that, and the ball is now firmly back at the committee's feet to find out from the Minister of State and put the pressure on her as to why the LTWO has not been met or why the processes that were recommended have not yet started after five weeks. Everywhere in the report it mentions speed and the need for rapid resolution. On that note, I give the witnesses the commitment of the committee. We will also take on board Deputy Nolan's proposal. I think we thought this evening might have been the end of a long journey and a long relationship between the witnesses and the committee, but I think we have more tasks going forward on the back of the deliberations and what the witnesses have told us this evening. As I said, I agree with them that the review was long overdue. I welcome its publication. There is no point in its publication if the recommendations therein are not acted on, and acted on swiftly. I give the witnesses the commitment on behalf of the Chair and on behalf of the committee that we will take that up going forward and try to expedite the recommendations. I thank the witnesses for their contribution and their visit here.