Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister's commitment in this regard. It is very important. There are several State-owned forests in my constitutency. The partnership model that has been developed by the local authorities, the Leader companies, the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Fáilte Ireland and other such bodies is important. The Ballyhoura Mountains in my area of south Limerick is a prime example of where recreation can sit cheek by jowl with the commercial aspect of the forest.

As we move forward with this, will the Minister examine the partnership model that is in place throughout the country with a view to ensuring that his colleague, the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, the sports partnerships, the local authorities and everybody else, including the people who use the forests, form part of a consultative process? There is a good deal of misinformation and scaremongering about what is in effect the sale of timber and people are drawing every sort of a red herring into it. The assurances the Minister has given in the Dail today go some way towards allaying those fears. I ask that such a consultative process would continue at local level.

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