Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Fitzmaurice has had to leave to attend a CAP meeting in Castlereagh and he sends his apologies. I have listened to all of the debate and I agree with many of the contributions that have been made, including the criticisms. I know they are difficult and I do not wish to personalise it. I do not hear a sense of urgency from the Minister of State. It may be that it is like a swan gliding through the water and underneath something is furiously happening. I hope this is the case. We really do need a sense of urgency. The only place I am hearing urgency is on the television with regard to COP26 and climate change. There is no sense of urgency, and farmers are seeing no urgency, with regard to their applications to plant trees or to cut the forestry they have planted, perhaps to replace it with something more environmentally sustainable.

I agree with what Deputy Boyd Barrett said about the type of forestry we are carrying out in Ireland. It is not environmentally sustainable. I invited the Minister of State to Cappabane to see what Coillte has done there and she did not come. She visited Scariff and the Irish Seed Savers Association. I applaud what they are doing and they are great people. I ask the Minister of State to move outside her comfort zone. Stop talking to the converted and talk to farmers, ordinary people and land owners. They are the ones who are the future of afforestation in Ireland if there is going to be one.

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Above all, the Minister of State needs to back up the talk with actions, which have been singularly missing up to now.

I hope we are about to see a change because all the talk in the world about afforestation in Glasgow - one can fly anywhere in the world and produce grandiloquent statements - is completely worthless unless it is backed up by what farmers are experiencing on the ground. We need action now as we are nearly half-way through the lifetime of this Government and we need it soon.

I will hand over to Deputy Cahill now, as he was kind enough to give time to me, but we need action soon.

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