Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Cahill spoke about the charter of rights for farmers and the charter of rights for people who have forestry planted. In essence, the Bill is a positive move forward and I understand there is some reluctance to put the timeframe in it. Decisions should be made in the shortest possible timeframe from when the application is put in because, as other speakers have said, this industry is out of the soil, it has grown over generations, and there is great rural employment in it. As Deputy Danny Healy-Rae has just said, the felling licences compel a person to replant the land. It will not be complete clear-fell and it will not return to any other use. There are stringent rules on this.

We have to be very clear that we understand what is implied in the whole forestry industry and what we believe the essence of this Bill before us is. It is to clear a massive backlog that has stifled the forestry industry and many jobs in recent years. Anybody who is involved in it, including the companies that are trying to plant or fell land are engaging with all sectors. They are far and away ahead of any of us here in terms of ecology and any of the rest of it. They have studied it and put it together and they are fighting tooth and nail to try to do the right thing for the environment, their rural communities and the jobs that have been built up in rural communities where there is little else in the way of employment.

We talk about afforestation and we talk in flowery language and terms of other ecological moves such as small plantations and getting people to plant more trees. All of it is fine and I plant individual trees as well as everything else but there is one sector that also needs to be highlighted tonight, namely, the community groups that for one reason or another have built up a small amount of afforestation. Far-seeing people bought small plots of land in the late 1960s and early 1970s and these have been invested in or are owned by community development organisations throughout this country. They have got felling licences and they have looked at the initiatives that have been brought forward by the Department, such as the fantastic NeighbourWood scheme. They have looked at such schemes and decided to go with them because they saw that they would empower their communities and give better resources such as walks to them. These organisations are also in this logjam. These communities want to do right by their environments and they are in the logjam of this process as well.

We are in the Dáil Chamber discussing the crisis in the forestry industry. Each and every one of the speakers who has spoken has done so with passion to try to get this moving. We want to get this Bill passed as fast as possible but we also want to ensure that the passing of this legislation will not be the end of it. There has to be massive dialogue between the Department and the stakeholders.

Deputy Fitzmaurice made a point on Second Stage about community groups. They give small amounts of land for community or recreational facilities but they must go through a lot of red tape in the Department. To counteract Deputy Boyd Barrett's point, they must go through the Department to try to get small pieces of land that were forested excluded from replanting so they can put playgrounds, community facilities or something else on it. We are talking about fractions of acres being taken but there is an amount of red tape to be surmounted to get this through the system.

Right through the forestry legislation there are very stringent conditions and these can stifle improvements, enlightened development and engagement in rural and urban communities throughout the country. These groups seek to bring a benefit to everybody by turning these plots into recreational areas.

This Bill is a first step in ensuring the logjam that has stifled the industry and brought it to a halt throughout the country is eased. We must ensure this mechanism will not continue saecula saeculorum. There must be a defined timeframe and we must move forward with proper engagement to try to ensure a proper legislative floor can be put under the forestry industry. There must be flexibility for people who want to take small parcels of land from forestry and return it to a community facility or the like.

The Minister of State has the imagination to do this but she must ensure everybody in the Department is challenged on this. If more legislation must be brought before the Houses on this, it should be done as a matter of urgency. Forestry companies have written to me and people I know well have worked in forestry for generations at this stage. They are waiting on decisions but there is no timeframe. There must be a charter. We must not have to return to this debate later by saying that legislation was good for its time but it did not address the time delay.

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