Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

If weekends are taken out of that, it is 90,000 trees per day, every day. The present programme for Government has set not quite as ambitious a target: the trees can be planted over 20 years rather than ten years, and the metrics are slightly more relaxed. However, and this is the fundamental point and the reason I support the Bill, this country, if it is to engage in major afforestation, needs to get serious about it. We need to make it possible to comply with the targets we are setting. There is no point in wandering off to Paris conferences or UN conferences saying we have a plan and then saying, "Hold on a second, though. There are four objectors here and five objectors there." Then the plan just collapses for want of implementation.