Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Forest Service does not produce proper annual reports. According to its website, the target is 25,000 ha. The Minister has said that the current rate of planting is 7,000 ha. We have evidence that 1.5 million cu. m of forests have been cut down. When all of that is added together, it is clear that we have deforestation in this country. We are not meeting our targets. We need a comprehensive analysis of this. I am not the only person who wants to know what is going on. All sorts of stakeholders want to know. All of this information should be in the public domain. Why are we not organising an independent assessment like that done in the UK, with open and transparent public consultation as part of the process? When that happened in the UK, the plan was abandoned.

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