Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Finland is officially the world's happiest country and that is not unrelated to the fact it is 75% covered in trees. We all know the therapeutic benefit of trees. I often go for a walk in Killinthomas in Rathangan, in Moore Abbey in Monasterevin and Mullaghreelan near Kilkea Castle and derive great benefit from it. Of course, today, we want to talk about the commercial aspect of forestry, why it is so important to us and why we absolutely need to have urgent action. I thank the Minister of State for being here and the Leader for affording us the opportunity to address this very important and pertinent issue.

The situation in the forestry sector has been described by the industry as an absolute scandal. It is difficult to disagree with it on that. We are all aware certain High Court decisions have changed the processing of forestry licence applications. In doing some research on the debate today, I came across a parliamentary question submitted to the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. In that response, as a result of the High Court decision, I noted approximately 80% of applications are being screened for a comprehensive ecological assessment. There is no doubt the Department was not prepared for those numbers. In addition, the number of appeals increased from 21 in 2017 to a peak of 582 in 2020.

While, of course, we would expect something of a delay in the issuing of licences, at this point, it is a crisis and a resolution must be found. The statistics are stark. In 2016, the Department issued 6,731 felling licences, compared with just 1,717 in 2020. This year, we are starting to improve and that has to be acknowledged, but we must be able to put into focus and in train Project Woodland, which was launched by the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, in February of this year. I acknowledge the additional resources, such as the increase in ecologists, which has gone from one in 2018 to 27 now, and the 21 additional forestry inspectors. Of course, that is welcome.

Many of us had the opportunity to meet with the Social Economic and Environmental Forestry Association approximately two weeks ago. Its message was very clear in that this would have to be sorted or it would be out of business. We have no option but to get it sorted, for so many reasons. Apart form those who are directly impacted, the backlog is having significant impacts on the ground. People cannot plant their land, farmers are struggling to manage their crops and they cannot harvest timber. This lack of domestic supply is having a significant impact on the cost of wood and timber materials in Ireland. I have heard claims the prices for basic timber products have gone up 60%. That is totally unsustainable.

We are in the midst of a significant housing crisis and a decade of Government failure to invest in public housing or increase our housing supply has left us in a situation in which thousands of families are in precarious living conditions and need to have the chance, opportunity and dream of owning their own homes. One of the many ways of tackling this is to dramatically increase our housing supply, which requires significant amounts of timber. Our colleague, the Minister for Housing, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy O'Brien, has secured record investment in housing, but we need every single euro to stretch as far as it can.

Allowing timber prices to skyrocket will result in a dwindling of our resources and budget and impact on our ability to utilise this unprecedented housing budget to the fullest. We are relying on the Minister to deliver on this issue. I acknowledge it is not an easy one to solve, especially in light of the recent High Court positions, but we need to get it sorted for those who are dependent on a viable and functional forestry sector and those who are dependent on having timber for our house building and many other projects.