Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thanks Members for their contributions and as the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, pointed out, this is something to which we gave significant consideration in the drafting of the Bill. As she noted, that is why the capacity is provided for in the Bill for the Minister, in due course, to place timelines on how long an appeal might take. That capacity is there. I can assure the House that the Minister of State and I did not engage with other parties or none two weeks ago to ask for co-operation to bring this urgent legislation to the Seanad last week and to deal with it in the Dáil this week in its entirety merely so that we would then end up dilly-dallying and swinging the lead and not trying to get appeals dealt with in as prompt a fashion and dealt with as quickly as possible.

The decision not to put timelines into the legislation but to enable the Minister to do so at a future date was made because were they included in the primary legislation now, as Deputy Fitzmaurice's amendment provides, where "The Forestry Appeals Committee would give their decision on an appeal within eight weeks of receipt", then the appeals committee would collapse under its own weight before it had taken its first step.

As we all know, there are appeals that have been in the system for much longer than eight weeks. The backlog is the problem and it is taking too long to deal with appeals. We in the Department have employed additional ecologists so that the appeals can be processed and dealt with promptly. We will also ensure that the forestry appeals committee has additional personnel so that it has the capacity to deal with many more appeals. The priority now is to ensure that the backlog is processed in the promptest manner possible. This means providing the necessary resources and ensuring that appeals are dealt with as quickly as possible.

Once the situation reaches equilibrium again, the backlog has been dealt with and we are in a more normal state of affairs, the legislation will give the Minister the capacity to put reasonable timeframes in place so as to provide clarity on how long appeals should take. Were we to set out in primary legislation that all of the backlogged appeals must be dealt with in eight weeks, it would not be practical or feasible. We must first deal with the backlog as quickly as possible and, once that is done, start processing new appeals in a timely fashion.

There are many more amendments and we are only on amendment No. 1. The co-operation of the House is important. Deputies understand the urgency of passing the Bill this week in order that its provisions can kick into operation quickly. Last week, the Minister of State gave her strong and comprehensive consideration to each of the amendments in the Seanad. We will not have the time to address all of our amendments, but I look forward to moving through them.

Let us first consider this amendment and read the legislation in terms of what the Bill will allow the Minister to do when it is timely to do so. To put this amendment's provisions into primary legislation at the outset would mean that the legislation would not be operable and could not perform the functions that we all want, namely, processing appeals, supporting the sector, ensuring that timber starts flowing again and employment in timber yards and contractors continues, and preventing supply drying up.

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