Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Government has been in place for more than 12 months. This Dáil has been in place for a bit longer again. This problem predates this Government. I acknowledge that the problem did not arise under Senator Hackett's watch but she has been in officer for a while now and I am not hearing of any increase in the number of felling licences granted. I appreciate that there are environmental issues around forestry policy but these are not the problem here, although we need to address them. One can blame people who object to planning or felling licences but other countries have much more environmental protection in place and do not have the same problems sourcing timber as us. There is a logjam in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine with regard to issuing felling licences. I sometimes question whether there might be a degree of market manipulation being carried out by large plantation owners and whether the Department is complicit in that. One or way or the other, there is a very significant problem. Timber mills cannot get timber so they cannot mill it and sell it on. Small builders just cannot get timber as a result.

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