Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister of State luck in her new position. I will support this Bill but to be clear, it will not solve the problem. It might solve the problem with applications going forward but it will not solve the problem of the 2,000 applications that are caught in the trap at the moment. As the Minister of State is aware, 12,000 jobs are at stake. In my neck of the woods we have companies like ECC, Murray Timber Group and Masonite Ireland. All is not well in the timber industry, as has been highlighted by others. We have got to solve the current logjam affecting 2,500 ha. Farmers have the right to plant trees on their land if they want to but I know of applications that have been up to 700 days in the system. While this legislation can be enacted straight away, what will happen to the 2,000 applications in the system at the moment?

I can give examples of what we are dealing with in terms of the Department. It is not today nor yesterday that this started happening. If one looks at the period from 2016 to 2020, we have planted just over 50% of what we said we would plant. Why? It is because the Department knew there was a problem but it did not deal with it. In Mayo, there was brashing to be done and fertiliser to be spread and there was a grant available for same but applicants were waiting three and a half years for a decision from the Department. I know of an incident in Roscommon where a person gave a road away in part of a plantation to enable a community to get out. There was an acre to be knocked and the grant was taken from the person. A return of the money was sought from the person even though the road was given to the council for free. That is the mentality of the Department with which the Minister of State is dealing.

People need to understand that this all started with the habitats directive. If ports, roads or forestry are within 20 km of an area covered by the habitats directive, they are nailed. Our current President signed that directive into law in 1997 and it is causing major problems. The Department has not determined how it can go round the directive. The same person 40, 30, 20 years ago or now, under the terms of the habitats directive, makes a decision on an application to plant trees but it just does not add up at the moment. That person cannot screen out an application until it is decided that a different person in the band will get that piece of paper; that it is not the drummer any more, it has to be the guitar player. There are serial objectors and I, above all people in the world, am no fan of them but people have a right to object. They have seen the gap that we have left. Applications are sent in but the person making the decision on them is not suitably qualified to do so. Every application that goes in has to be screened in whereas if we had a person who is suitably qualified, he or she would conduct an overall analysis and get it out, after which the forestry inspector could deal with it. Until we decide to do that, we are going nowhere. The system has to change. If the Minister of State spent four years watching over a situation where we went from planting 7,000 ha to 2,5000 ha, would she be getting votes in Offaly? There is a serious problem in the Department and someone has to have the liathroidí to say so. We are beating around the bush here about it and if we keep at that, we are never going to solve it. We have got to face up to the fact that there was a loophole that environmentalists could exploit. They went for it and they got it. We have to close that loophole but we will not do so unless properly qualified people are able to screen something in or screen it out. Let it be screened out straight away, before ever getting into the appeals process. That is the first part of the process that has to be resolved.

The Minister of State has an important decision to make today. Many Deputies have submitted amendments, some of which I would describe as very good. However, there will be a whisper in the Minister of State's ear by a Department that has failed for the past four years to resolve this issue. I went to the Department about this three years ago. I saw this coming even though I am no expert on forestry. In actual fact, I have problems with it in certain places but the reality is that there will be forestry and farming. We need the 12,000 jobs and we need the lorries to keep going. There is a danger now that the pharmaceutical industry will not have pallets on which to ship its goods out. Yesterday we were lauding our pharmaceutical industry, saying that it was keeping the country going. That is how serious this is but is the Minister of State going to listen to the whisper in her ear from the Department telling her not to accept the amendment from one or the other Deputy because it is never done in here, the Government has a majority and can drive the Bill through? What will we drive through? We will drive through legislation that might solve the problem going forward but we will still have the basket of problems that has been left behind. The Minister of State has to decide today whether to build a new road and to listen to what people are saying. We are not saying this just to make up stuff. We are saying it because we see what is happening on the ground. We are saying it because we want the industry to move forward. We do not want to see it on its knees. The Minister of State has a choice. She can either consider the amendments and work with Deputies or she can listen to the whisper in her ear from a Department guilty of four years of non-activity and backward steps resulting in a reduction in planting from 7,000 ha to 2,500 ha. It is not just me saying this - the Department's own figures show it. The Minister of State should listen to the stories I told about the person who gave the ground and still the Department took the money from them, or the person who wanted to spread fertiliser or do some brashing. If a Department cannot make a decision in four years, then something must give. I agree with Deputy Connolly about the Mackinnon report. I have heard that the procurement has been done but nobody has been appointed. Can the Minister of State confirm that? When will somebody be appointed? In fairness, that report said everything that I am saying and it is the way forward.

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