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

I appreciate that information as it helps put the jigsaw of what happened together.

The issue of consultation will arise further on in this Bill. I am not a scientific expert. I am open minded on this and do not assume the worst, but I believe one of the things missing in regard to this is consultation, particularly in regard to the cutting down of 16,000 trees in a national park on what appears to have been a preventative basis. Subsequently, there has been some controversy over whether this was necessary.

I am sure the labs say it was necessary. However, one thing Coillte is bound by, with its eco badge, is a commitment to public consultation on any significant action affecting the forests in its care and stewardship. As far as I am aware, there was no public consultation about this action, which has had such a huge impact on Gougane Barra, which is one of our most important national forests. Therefore, there are still questions to answer, but we can discuss them when we get on to the issue of the public consultation and the importance of having the most robust system of public consultation for dealing with forests.

Much of the Minister of State's response to the proposal made in my amendment centred on the fact that with special areas of conservation and so on, our concerns are covered in terms of the protection of ancient woodlands. However, the point that has been made to me is that what we are missing are specific management plans for the remnants of our ancient woodlands. We need this because of their incredible importance as a crucial part of our heritage and as a genetic bank of biodiversity. We do not have this genetic bank with industrial forestry, which is mostly based on species that are cloned or imported, which are, therefore, genetically weak and more vulnerable to disease. Our native ancient woodlands are a genetic and biodiversity storehouse of our forests. Therefore, we need specific management plans to protect them against possible dangers and threats such as disease. That is the reason for these amendments.

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