Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Given that the submission was not made until the middle of April and the former forestry programme had been extended, is it not fair to say that the submission should have been prepared and ready to go earlier in the year, rather than in the middle of April? We are now towards the end of May. As someone put it to me the other day, we are in the middle of a major climate crisis and we cannot plant trees. I find that extraordinary.

The Minister of State said the new programme is ambitious. It sounds good. That is great, but it still does not exist for people who are interested in it. I imagine the number of those interested in getting into forestry is seriously dwindling. It goes back to my earlier point regarding confidence in the sector. People cannot plant trees today. We are nearly into June and we do not have a forestry programme for the next four years. How much longer will people have to wait? Is there any timeline? Do we know how long other countries which have sought this approval have waited? Do we have any indication at all how much longer people and the sector will have to wait for this programme?

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