Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being in the House for this important debate. I will not pile on because there has been a lot of criticism here this evening. I must say the criticism of the system is justified. We have many systems that need to be improved in this country but I cannot think of a system that operates worse than the licensing system at present. It clearly has failed very badly and continues to fail. There is no way we will meet the targets for the foreseeable future with the system the way it is. I appeal to the Minister of State on behalf of the constituents I represent to please prioritise reform of the system. Will the Minister of State publish a written plan for us on what will be done, what the targets will be over the coming 12 months and how she will address the huge backlog in licensing? It really has frustrated so many people.

Some people are at their wits' end and are very distraught about this. I am very frustrated. I have tabled a raft of parliamentary questions on this over the past 12 months. I have tabled countless questions trying to prioritise this issue and move it along. It seems to be getting worse rather than improving. It is a massive challenge for the Minister of State but I am confident she will do her very best to try to address it on behalf of the people who depend on the sector.

During the week, I was informed that 12,000 employees is more than Twitter, Facebook and Apple put together. The Minister of State can be sure that if there was a regulatory problem of this nature affecting those companies it would be sorted very quickly. For some reason, because it is an indigenous industry and a native industry, there seems to be less of a "can do" attitude. Michael Collins was writing about the potential of Irish forestry 100 years ago in A Path to Freedom. He wrote very well about how much potential there was. We have not achieved that potential. This is not all the fault of the Minister of State as there is a century of underachievement. Surely what is happening now in forestry is the mother and father of all underachievement. I appeal to the Minister of State to redouble her efforts to try to sort this out. It is costing many people so much heartache. As has been referred to, it is also inhibiting our chances to put up houses for people with regard to providing timber for the industry. It is a massive disaster. I ask for more flexibility in future for farmers in terms of land use for forestry to try to encourage it.

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