Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are many amendments to this legislation. It is quite unusual to see them running into the hundreds, and many of them are sensible and are trying to improve the Bill.

The forestry appeals committee does not just deal with clear felling and it also deals with the issues of plantation of timber. Many of the objections come from people in my community who have a problem with so much land being planted that they cannot get that land to farm it, and there are issues in that regard. However, we are dealing with the legislation that is before us. There is a crisis. There is a huge backlog and what we could almost call a blockade has been established.

I have heard an awful lot of talk about blackguards putting in objections and so on. Everyone who puts in an objection is not a blackguard. Many of them do that for very good reason. They are entitled to do so and that entitlement has to be upheld as well, and I hope that will be done in this legislation. They have an absolute right to be able to say their community has a right to survive and prosper.

There are also, of course, issues where people work in the forestry industry. I have many in my area who go out and draw timber, and the hauliers who bring timber to the sawmills, and they also want to make a living and want to get something out of this. There are many sides to this debate.

Deputy Boyd Barrett was correct in one thing, that is, a large part of the reason we have this problem is that the objections that have come in during the last six months to a year are focused on a part of the legislation which was not focused on as intensely in the past. They are forcing the Department through the wringer when it comes to looking at these appeals. This is why this needs to be broken up so the appeals can be looked at faster, and I understand that. More resources need to be put into the Department to ensure that. Some of the amendments are to make sure that the correct expertise is there to deal with this issue, and that experts are in place to look at biodiversity and all of those issues, in order to ensure we get the correct outcome for everyone concerned.

It is clear, given the nature of this debate, that we are not going to have a situation where we vote on the first set of amendments, then move to the second set and have a lengthy debate and then move to the third set and have a lengthy debate. It is very clear by the way we are moving along that there will be very little discussion on the other blocks of amendments.

The broad point is that the forestry industry creates a lot of jobs and does a lot of good, but it also has a lot of problems. Those problems need to be addressed but many are not addressed at all in this legislation. I certainly hope they will be addressed very soon because if they are not, we will have more communities around the country very disillusioned with this situation.

The point was made by many speakers that small farmers want a waiver in order to cut their few trees on a couple of acres of land that is in forestry so they can get an income. That is true and there are many like that. However, for every one like that, there are many more with probably ten times more trees standing in forests that belong to corporations and companies that bought land from under farmers’ noses that those farmers were not able to buy. That is a sore point and it is why forestry has got such a bad name in many parts of the country. Where I am from, and I have spoken to people in Sligo, Mayo and other places, we have seen a corporate takeover of what was farmland. We see whole parishes practically gone and taken over by big companies that now own the land and plant trees on it to get grants from the Government and get tax-free income on everything that comes from it - tax-free for the premiums, tax-free for the money they get for the forestry, tax-free all the way through. However, a farmer who has a few cattle and is trying to make a living by milking a cow pays full tax on any profit made. Farmers feel aggrieved at that.

There are huge imbalances in all of this. Part of what this Bill is trying to do is to get some of the balance right in regard to appeals and how that can work. However, the other imbalances, the big ones, are not dealt with in this Bill. Those imbalances need to be dealt with very soon or else we will have even more revolt in rural Ireland around this forestry issue.

The points made about the small farmer and the ordinary person out there trying to survive, and the timber industry trying to get timber, are all very valid and we need to see the timber industry prosper. However, unfortunately, the whole focus has been on that industry and not enough focus has been on the communities that have been displaced by it. That needs to be addressed. The Minister was with me on the agriculture committee in the past and we often discussed this issue. It is an issue that has been left behind, totally abandoned, and it needs to be addressed.

I know people who work in the timber industry. I spoke recently to a contractor who employs 12 or 14 people. He has trucks on the road, harvesters and forwarders, and he is trying to make a living, meet big repayments to banks, look after his family and look after the families of all the people who work for him. He is very annoyed that all of this situation with appeals is blocking that from happening. He also acknowledges much of what is going on in that other sector, where a lot of the land that has been planted is planted by people who have come from outside the area, and he understands why people feel aggrieved.

It was emphasised that this is all marginal and poor quality land. That marginal and poor quality land produced the finest of people in the past. The best of people came from those communities when they were communities, but they are no longer communities. That is a crying shame. We need to get a bit of perspective into this. I understand what the Ministers are trying to do and I understand what that is all about, but I also believe that many of the amendments are worthy of being accepted. I suggest to the Ministers that they look again at this, and work and co-operate with others in this House, from all parties and none, who have co-operated with them to bring it this far. They should look at the amendments and although some of them may not be acceptable, most are reasonable and they need to be looked at and brought to a conclusion.

At the end of all of this, I would absolutely say that unless we get a forestry policy that works for communities, then we are going to have more and more problems with this issue. It cannot be all about the timber industry. It has to be about the people who used to live and, hopefully, will continue to live in those areas.

If large areas of the country are to be planted, alternative employment must be ensured for the people who once lived there. I will certainly not stand over something that results in more and more people being driven out of rural Ireland, more schools closing and more football clubs having to amalgamate. There will be no more families living in these areas and nothing will be produced in them. Timber will be grown before being drawn 100 miles away to a sawmill somewhere. That does nothing for the rural communities that once lived in those places. We need to get back to that.

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