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

The broadness and vagueness concern me. The Minister of State needs flexibility and cannot be absolutely tied down to, or hamstrung by, every last detail but if the policy and standards are good and are informed by a sustainable approach to forestry, some of the clashes and conflicts the Minister of State alludes to do not come into play. There is often a false tension between what is viewed as the economic approach to forestry and the heritage or environmental approach. I am arguing on behalf of environmental groups and people who are passionate about, and interested in, forestry, who know more than I do and who say it is possible to have the best of all possible worlds. If it is done right the unique feature of sustainable forestry is that one can achieve and maximise all of the ends, economic, social, cultural, heritage or whatever. To set them against one another is wrong. If the Minister of State has the right policies and standards and applies those, the clashes do not have to exist.

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