Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am coming back now to the subject at hand and will address the Minister and Minister of State but I could not let Deputy Boyd Barrett away with that. He cannot come in here, talk rubbish and get away with it. I will come back now to the Minister and the Minister of State's performance and response. For God's sake, I must challenge them for coming along and saying that they will deal with this afterwards and that we can put in timeframes afterwards. That is nonsense. In actual fact, the display the two of them put on tonight would be worthy of an episode of "Father Ted". It was hopeless to give that response to us after we genuinely put forward these amendments. We worked at them, we believe in them and a lot of people around the country are relying on them to be enacted. We begged the Minister and Minister of State to give a good, sensible response as to why we could not do this now. I would have no problem if they said that they would accept this amendment but not that one and give us reasons for same. Equally, they might want us to vary or change our amendments, by consensus or agreement, working together.

However, they did exactly the opposite of what I asked them to do earlier. I stood up in good faith. I wished them well and I told them we were willing to work with both Ministers. What do they do? They throw it all back in our faces by telling us that every bit of work that has been done, and a lot of work and time went into these amendments, will be thrown out of the window - it is a case of “our way or no way”. That is what the Ministers are saying here tonight. One would swear to God they were infallible and that they had a monopoly on being right. No one of us has a monopoly on being right. I will be wrong ten times a day but I hope I am right some share of the time as well. I know I am right in putting forward our amendments and in supporting respectable politicians like Deputy Fitzmaurice, who is talking nothing but common sense, talking from the heart and he knows what he is talking about.

How many of those in this Chamber worked in forestry? I worked for a long time in forestry and when I started out in forestry, it was not a machine or anything else I had, but a horse called Billy, and Dan Casey with me, a good sound local man, and the two of us working our hearts out every day, supplying timber to Grainger’s Sawmills. We worked damn hard pulling out timber every day for a long time, on hot, roasting days and on freezing cold days, breaking down into the ground to try to pull out tonnes of timber onto the side of the road. I feel like I am entitled to talk about the industry because I worked in it and I know what it is about from the ground up.

Here we are, in a position to legislate for the good of the timber industry and, instead, the two Ministers spoke for only a very short length of time. The reason for that is they had nothing to say, certainly nothing good to say. They only gave a bare, minimal response. As I said, it is fit for an episode of “Father Ted” because it did not make any sense. One would swear to God it was a joke by them because they are not taking this seriously at all. They are not doing anything to affect the timber industry in a positive way. We could spend the night talking about it. All I want them to do is to say they will work with us, but they will not. They are throwing the whole lot in our faces - every one of us here.

On another point, where is everybody? I know the Acting Chairman and many of those in his party are genuinely interested and I am not personalising this to him. However, I am asking the question. Look around us. Where are the people who are interested in the forestry industry in Ireland? Where are they right now? Why are they not here to debate this and to support us? It is very disappointing. I would ask the people who are going to be relying on this and who will feel the negative effects of this next month or next year, the people who will not have employment because of the inaction of this Government, to look around this Chamber as I am looking at it up on the screen. We could all fit into the back of a bad motor car. Where is everybody and why are they not here to fight and to stand up for the people, the small farmers who might have a small amount of ground? They want to see it being harvested but it cannot be, and we are trying to rectify that here tonight. It is an absolute shame.

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