Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Specificity is precisely what should be governing primary legislation. This is a specific amendment. It should not be so injurious to the Minister that he should not accept it on the basis that it is overly specific. There is a point to be made here that captures the political zeitgeist. That is about how we take carbon out of society and the economy. One of the ways to do that is through an active afforestation programme. The facts in respect of the dashboard, which is the toolkit we all use, clearly indicate that those targets will not be met. Deputy Carthy has already stated that. We can see it for ourselves. The point of the amendment is that it asks for a level of granularity which is not unreasonable. The Department is a mighty Department in the sense that it has many personnel. It has an ever-growing number of personnel, particularly relating to the processing of afforestation and felling licences. It has many experts now. It would be very easy for the Department to carry out this exercise. I ask the Minister to rethink his position. I fear I am involved in a futile exercise in that regard but I ask that nonetheless.

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