Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle.

I commend Deputy Martin Kenny on the work he has done on this issue. Make no mistake, he represents the views of the people of not only County Leitrim but many other communities. That has been well and fairly articulated by his constituency colleague, Deputy Harkin, tonight. The Minister of State is new to the job and I know she has an interest in this area, but she appears to have made the same mistake that many Ministers make when they arrive in a new Department. She believes the officials in her Department are acting in good faith. The Department, particularly the forest section, has made an absolute hames of forestry policy in this State. We learned this week in the agriculture committee that the native ash tree, one of the trees synonymous with our country and which is associated with one of our most popular national sports, is likely to become extinct. Some genius thought it was okay to allow the importation of ash into Ireland. Who would believe it? Not only that, it was imported from countries that were known to have a prevalence of dieback. That was imported into the State as part of our so-called forestry policy and, according to the evidence provided to the committee this week, will more than likely ensure there is no ash at all in this country. That is a travesty, and just the latest in a long line of travesties when it comes to forestry policy.

I am a massive advocate for forestry. Forestry can play a crucial role on many different levels. I have said that on numerous occasions and I will continue to say it because there are opportunities in it for rural economies. We have heard other speakers talk about the jobs involved in local forestry. When forestry policy is carried out correctly, it can be a vibrant industry, not something that is just left sitting for up to 30 years after which a couple of large multinational corporations come in, take the benefits from it and destroy the local roads while they are at it. It can be something that can thrive and keep a local timber production industry going and keep people employed in its administration and maintenance. When forestry is carried out correctly, there can be an associated tourism benefit with it.

Forestry policy should be good for the environment, but what have we done in the constituency of Deputies Martin Kenny and Harkin? We have allowed forests to be planted on bog land. This is the ingenious forestry policy employed by the Department. We have damaged the environment by planting forests. The land was more beneficial to the environment before it was touched than when it was planted. That should ring alarm bells for the Minister of State. An entire local community is up in arms, and rightly so. I have walked the roads of the communities along with Deputy Martin Kenny in my capacity as a Member of the European Parliament. I have walked them not only with local representatives and communities but also with international forestry experts. I am sure the Minister of State is aware of the European organisation, Fern. Deputy Martin Kenny and I took its representatives to County Leitrim. They addressed public meetings and spent days on end doing what I hope the Minister of State will do some day, which is looking at the forestry and what it means for biodiversity, local economic development and for community buy-in. Fern included County Leitrim in a publication as an example of worst practice, so all over Europe, governments and agriculture Departments are shown an example of how not to do forestry.

Does the Minister of State accept there is a massive failure in policy? That would be a good place to start, whether she comes from that position or she thinks that what we have is broadly okay and just might need tweaking. Too many of her predecessors have thought the latter. If she accepts there is an absolute failing, she must make a decision on where she should look for the answers. She will have to make a call as to whether she looks within her Department and to the people who have stood over and allowed this situation to develop. If she decides to do that, we are on the road to nowhere. Some 1,500 ha was mentioned with regard to what will be developed this year. That is a stark, clear statistic. If the Minister of State does that, we will continue with failed policies, perhaps tweaks here and there and thousands of jobs and opportunities lost.

If, however, the Minister of State comes at it from a different angle, which I hope she will, where she accepts there is a failing and that it has to be addressed, who will she look to for answers? There is nobody better than Deputy Martin Kenny and the community he represents with this legislation. This is a choice. Yes, there is a licensing regime in the Department, but local communities do not trust the Department in this regard. They do not believe it has their interests at heart. They trust their local authority to a far greater degree.

That is because their local authority is made up of people who actually come from their communities, live in their communities and who have planning experts in place. They say they are probably more frustrated than anybody because they see bad planning practices happening all the time. They see big land grabs taking place where local farming communities are denied the opportunity to purchase land because big pension funds are coming in and purchasing the land or big agri-businesses and blanket planting it with Sitka spruce in order to offset emissions that they are building up somewhere else. That is not what forestry should and could be used for. I hear all the time about the proportions that need to be in place of 15% broadleaf but 15% does not come close to what we need. It is not even a fraction of what is needed.

We have invasive species in forests that are not suited to the Irish environment. I mentioned that I go through forests. I love forests. There is nothing I love more than walking around Rossmore Park or Dún na Rí forest park or Lough Key Forest Park. Anywhere I go I love to walk around a forest. A forest is something that people should want to visit and it is something people should want to live beside. When the people who live beside forests are telling the Minister of State that they feel the place is suffocating them and is taking every piece of life out of their community then there is a problem. I urge the Minister of State to do something bold and imaginative and to show a bit of vision in allowing this Bill to go to Committee Stage. Let us have a debate on it and if there are genuine issues then let us thrash them out. If the 5 ha should be 6 ha or 10 ha, let us thrash that out but I urge the Minister of State to show a bit of vision where her predecessors did not. This is a massive opportunity for the Minister of State and I fear that she is just letting it slip by, and that she is just going along the route the officials have set out for her. She will be gone in five years' time and the officials will still be in place and they will still be pursuing the same failed policy. I believe that would be a travesty.

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