Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will do my best to keep my comments relevant to the amendments but I must address some of the comments that have been made. I am sure the Leas-Cheann Comhairle deals with many representations relating to planning permission, where people make a major investment to home themselves so they do not need a house from the State. They go through the planning and An Bord Pleanála process, as well as environment impact statements or flood plain issues.

Like Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, I remember as a young boy going to national school seeing those men on their bikes cycling to the woods. They had such pride at the time in the Irish forestry service and the work they did. They put in the drains and fences, and the entrances were a joy to behold. A snipe would not get through those fences, never mind a deer. Lamentably, since Coillte took over, with its associated companies and conglomerates, there are no men on the ground and no jobs. There is no maintenance, so God help the sheep farmers or other farmers trying to rear animals beside those forests.

I agree with many of Deputy Boyd Barrett's comments. He agrees that we must have a good forestry service. Farmers - small farmers mainly, including mountain farmers - planted the land once, twice or three times. There are people now held up that are ready to plant again. There are contractors who do the planting and it is not like the wild west.

I have often objected to the way Coillte has cut forestry at the roadside because it did not leave a screening, so the plantations looked desperate when they were harvested. We need that tidied up. There was no problem with first or second licences over 60 or 70 years, but now, all of a sudden, the loopholes are there and the Minister is trying to get around them. The former Minister, Deputy Creed, ignored this over the years.

I do not know the name of the gentleman mentioned by Deputy Boyd Barrett, but was it Mary or Biddy O'Connor who he said was his bean chéile? God bless her.

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