Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Chathaoirleach. This is my first opportunity to congratulate him on his appointment. I wish him the very best.

Like Senator McDowell and others, I am supportive of the amendment and I am also supportive of this Bill. The need for an annual report speaks to the lack of transparency in terms of what has gone on. Many people have experienced considerable frustration, including: those who have invested money in forestry and made investments over a period of years who then find they are unable to get a return on their investment; people working in forestry who are now going on three-day weeks; and people in construction who cannot access six-by-three pieces of timber, to which Senator Lombard referred on Second Stage. It is very important, in the context of this Bill, that the Minister of State takes the opportunity to give people a precise idea of how long it will take for normal service to resume.The Minister of State spoke eloquently on Second Stage about the new arrangements for the hearing of appeals, the subdivision of the commissions and the addition of new forestry staff at the Department, including ecologists, administrators and so on. That is very good, but we need to know how long it will take for normality to return. In recent days I spoke to somebody who had committed a very small holding of perhaps 10 ha to forestry some decades ago. The application went to the Department in April 2019. This person had spoken to somebody who was to manage the felling process. Apart from a letter from the Department acknowledging the application for a felling licence and warning about all the things that were not allowed now it had been lodged, nothing has been heard since. The person concerned contacted me and I made some initial inquiries with people in the Department. I was basically told that nothing would happen quickly on this case because the Department would deal with the bigger players first. People deserve more reassurance than that about how long it will take for this problem to be solved. I realise that the massive number of outstanding appeals is impacting the system as a whole. The Minister of State has spoken about her hope that these appeals can be dealt with more expeditiously and in greater numbers, but we need targets. Just as Senator McDowell spoke earlier about targets for afforestation, we need a target for the time it will take to return to normal.

I mentioned Scotland on the last day. The Minister of State noted that Ireland is one of the few countries that allow appeals while Scotland does not. Senator Lombard noted that firms are importing wood from Scotland because native timber is not available. Scotland has multiples of the forested acreage Ireland has. We seem to be afforestation laggards, if I may use a term that might recommend itself to some in this House.