Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Earlier we discussed the climate emergency and the need to improve biodiversity, the environment etc. Forestry has been posited by the Taoiseach’s Department as a major plank of Government policy, yet up to two weeks ago, only 27 afforestation licences have been granted for the year to date. That is a historic low for the State. Ash dieback is a huge problem. Many owners of plantations which suffer from ash dieback say that people should not believe what the Government says and people should not plant their land because if there is a problem, people will find themselves on their own.

Ministers are saying the problem is interaction with the European Union. That is a mantra that the weakest of Tory Ministers put forward in defence of their failures domestically. Can the Taoiseach think of any area where the gulf between what is promised and what is delivered is so large as in our forestry sector, both in terms of coming up with afforestation permits, licensing the plantation of lands, which we say we need, and allowing owners of dead plantations to cut them down and replant them and to provide some sort of financial support for them in that regard?

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