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

In fact, we have not got anywhere near even meeting those inadequate targets that we have set. Indeed, I was talking to some people from one the biggest nurseries in the country today and they say that the afforestation programme could grind to a halt by the end of this year because we do not have enough ecologists and archaeologists in the forest service to process the afforestation applications from farmers.

That seems an incredible fact. We have one ecologist in the forest service processing applications. As a result they are taking forever and farmers are losing interest. The other key problem is the role of Coillte in all of this. Coillte has not advanced the afforestation programme in any serious way. It has been overly focused on the monocultural Sitka spruce approach to forestry, which has caused problems in Leitrim and does very little for biodiversity. Coillte has not played the role it should play, which is acting as the guardian of the forest estate and advancing a sustainable form of forestry.

I do not know if I am out of time, a Cheann Comhairle.

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