Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on her new position.

We have all seen the statistics. Rural Ireland has been forgotten about. Not only have Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party and Sinn Féin now learned this through Covid, but they are all roaring "Rural Ireland". Since the Government's formation, 83% of those Members have mentioned rural Ireland in their contributions. Before the Government's formation, no one mentioned rural Ireland except the Independents and one or two other parties in the Dáil. All Governments have forgotten about rural Ireland. Now, Covid has told the Members in question that rural Ireland is what has been putting food on their tables. They need to listen to us because we have the experience.

The Bill is completely out of date. My constituency office is inundated with people who are frustrated at being unable to source timber. Timber is needed for building new houses and extensions, farm improvements, maintenance and many other projects. Hardware stores and building providers are unable to purchase timber from their suppliers. In fact, people are now ordering timber 12 weeks before they undertake projects.

The Bill's aim is to make the forestry appeals system more efficient and reduce the FAC's backlog of appeals. Licences need to be issued in order to plant and harvest trees and build roads. There is a backlog of 1,850 applications with the forest service, of which only 25% are currently being processed. Some 12,000 jobs are at risk in the forest industry. The FAC is being deliberately swamped by appeals, which is creating a large backlog. Everyone has a right to appeal, which is welcome in a democracy, but most of these appeals are being lodged by a small handful of individuals who are deliberately targeting the forestry appeals system as opposed to local projects.

This issue severely undermines the issues of climate action, tourism, recreation and biofuel. The forestry industry is worth €2.3 billion to the economy. We are importing timber from Norway, Sweden, Russia and Scotland.

This situation needs to be changed, serial objectors need to be stopped and the Government needs to listen to the people of rural Ireland because we know what we are talking about.

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