Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will be speaking to the amendment once again. I will be pointing out to Deputies Boyd Barrett and Connolly that the whole point of the amendment tabled by Deputy Fitzmaurice is that we would speed up the appeals; it is not that we would not have appeals. Many appeals are quite questionable, but that is not what his amendment is for. It is clear what his amendment is for. It is to speed up the process.

People can read all the percentages in the wide earthly world about how many appeals are being made or how many are not. We can argue here until the cows come home, as we used to say long ago, about how many appeals are being made, but the fact is that Deputy Fitzmaurice was clear in his amendment. It states that we should speed up any appeals that are being made.

The Minister stated that it will now be the Minister of the day's decision. There was an old saying when I was growing up that doctors differ and patients die. The current Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine can agree with this fact: there have been four agriculture Ministers in this Government. This Government is new but there have been four agriculture Ministers. It may be the Minister of State today but it may not be her in several months' time. Who knows? Basically, every Minister who comes in makes a decision on the length of time that an appeal or a person held up waiting to have a forest felled or cleared will be allowed. It will be at the behest of the Minister of the day. If he or she has a different agenda to another Minister, it could be speeded up or delayed. That is a crazy situation. It should not be the case. The amount of time that an appeal will be allowed and the timing of it should be clear, in black and white.

I made a submission when this was put before the people maybe one month or six weeks ago. I did not say that people did not have the right to appeal. I will not have it thrown at me down the road that people are not allowed to appeal. As I said, there are many suspicious appeals but I put forward a strong submission that would weed out many fake appeals.

My concern is for anyone who is going to plant forestry. As we can see, the Government will not meet its targets this year. The Government will be far short of the targets this year, as I said earlier. We are trying to appeal to farmers to look at different ways of farming. In my constituency of Cork South-West, it is becoming more and more difficult to carry out types of beef farming and many farmers are looking at forestry. I do not believe it is an attractive option at the moment given the way this is being handled and the way things are going on. There is talk of a REPS coming along under the new CAP. Certainly, better funding for the planting of trees has to be considered, but will it be an option? The first question to be raised will be what if farmers can plant but cannot fell afterwards. It will be up to the Minister of the day. If one Minister is more extreme than the next, it may slow up the entire process and make it worse.

There are 22 pages of amendments. It looks like we can discuss them all right, but we are all wasting our time because the Minister and the Minister of State have their minds made up. I think all 22 pages will be thrown in the bin. Maybe they will correct me if I am wrong but it certainly looks like that.

I want to go back to the main point. Deputy Fitzmaurice's amendment is clear. I am surprised that the Minister and the Minister of State will not take it on board. They have their minds set that it is their show or no show. I do not think that is the right way to do it. They were looking for the goodwill of the Dáil but they have really turned it against themselves. I will certainly still be supporting the amendment. I plead with the Minister and Minister of State to reconsider. Deputy Denis Naughten gave them an option some time ago. They might consider that option.

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