Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns for sharing time. In 2015, 852 farmers planted. In 2020, that figure is approximately 100. That will drive home to the Minister of State the message in respect of what has gone on. A year ago, all present supported her in the context of the legislation that was being brought in. When she came before the committee, there was a backlog of 5,000 licences. She spoke about how the Department has gone through so many licences. Today, there is still a backlog of 5,000 licences even though there are now X amount of ecologists involved. Whether we like it or not, 49 licences have been granted in afforestation in the past five weeks. That is a fact. The facts do not lie. The reality is that since 2016, this country has failed on this issue. The target that was set was to sequester more than 2 million tonnes of carbon in those few years but, over the lifetime of it, 8.6 million tonnes have been missed in targets. That might stop a bit of the kicking of farmers that has gone on.

Nurseries are in trouble, as the Minister of State is well aware. I commend Deputies Cahill, Carthy and Flaherty, who are members of the committee. The Mackinnon report needs to be resolved. The likes of the thinning issues need to be resolved. Where in the world, whether under a Green Party Minister or any other kind of Minister, would people in the green low-carbon agri-environment, GLAS, scheme, be told they cannot plant trees? That is what is happening under the current rules for GLAS. Will those rules be continued when we head into the results-based environment agri-pilot, REAP, scheme? If the Department keeps doing that, things are not going to get better. Unfortunately, forestry has become a dirty word in farming communities.

I wish to correct the record of the Dáil. The Minister of State said it was the most timber this year ever. Actually, 57,000 ha was given out in 2019. It is not me saying that; it is on the dashboard. We are currently at approximately 20,000 ha, 21,000 ha or 22,000 ha. Unless there were tráiníns in the stuff five or six years ago, there is a big difference in comparison with the figures the Minister of State has put out.

Does she have faith that Project Woodland will continue? I will call a spade a spade. I am hearing that the Department is doing an interim report at the moment. The news is fairly widespread that many of the participants are talking about starting to boycott it because they are fed up with going to meetings. It is meeting after meeting; policy after policy. They want delivery now. They are clear on that. Is the Minister of State confident they will not boycott Project Woodland? Basically, there are a lot of people who are fed up with it.

This narrative coming from the Department that in 2012 the habitats directive came in and then the Department had legal stuff to deal with does not wash for the simple reason that it was there for every Department. It applied to the national parks, the forestry sector, whatever. It does not work. As I have said time and again, it is my honest view that if we keep playing the piano in the same way, we will hear the same song. Unless we decide that an ecologist looks first and screens something out, these issues may continue. What needs to be admitted here is that if a forestry inspector is in danger of being brought to court - there is a possibility of that through the environmental lobby - he or she is not going to screen something out and risk being brought to court because the minute he or she goes into the witness box, there will be questions about what qualifications he or she has and whether he or she is an ecologist or a hydrologist. If the answer is "No", then it is game over. What has to be done is the structure inside needs to be changed. I will call it now. Unless that is done - I do not think it will be done - we will be here until next year and the year after that talking about what we are going to do. COP26 is basically talking about the targets of 7,000 ha that we are going to do. I heard it announced at COP26 the other day. That will be like a fairytale if we do not address the nuts and bolts of what is going on in the forestry sector.

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