Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Hackett. We are quite close in location and she is conscious of the serious concerns on this topic. A forestry company, in which people are employed, is working in Ballinasloe and is struggling. It is dealing with farmers and its clients. What can it do? It is stuck in no man's land. I met with them during the year and last year and we have raised this in a number of fora. It is good to hear a higher number of 27 ecologists have been recruited, who are dealing solely with the backlog. I appreciate the measures the Minister of State has put in place to deal with the appeals and that they have reduced to 30 from a high of 1,000. That is all very positive and shows she is taking measures to reduce the current backlogs.

However, ecologists seem to be very hard to find on the ground these days. What are we doing to increase the number of available ecologists? What sort of courses are out there? From the apprenticeship and further education side, what basic degrees or diplomas could be used as a launch pad to a career in ecology? We need to increase the number of ecologists. I find it frustrating. An article in the IrishFarmer's Journal from September referenced numbers of licences. I know we have had the habitats directive and so on since then, but the article looked at highs in 2016 of more than 6,500 licences being granted and compared it to 2020, when approximately only 1,700 licences were granted.

The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has commented on the consultation period of 30 days, which is causing disruption to this process. Is a measure needed to remind people who are applying for licences to do so six months in advance? It is absolutely shocking. How do we manage that better? Do we need more ecologists? Is streamlining needed in the Department on how the process is handled? Are we being proactive in communicating with people who are submitting applications, with regard to the lengths of time this will take? My colleagues here and Senator Daly have mentioned the streamlining of the process. There are a number of planning permissions.

This has been raised with me over and over again. I attended IFA meetings in Galway, recently, in Athenry. There were huge numbers there and what comes up over and over again, along with the CAP and other concerns farmers have, is forestry and what we are doing about it. We are working together in government. We have many goals and objectives to achieve and there are ways by which we will be doing that over the coming time, but this is knocking on our doors all the time. When we attend these meetings, this is what is cropping up and we are responding to the concerns for farmers on this.

The Minister of State also mentioned how we can use wood more in construction and so on. It is important we are considering how we use timber in different ways, but the concern is about the ways we use timber right now. We cannot get timber. This is quite positive and may be aspirational, but we need to deal with the immediate demands for timber. What are the plans for streamlining and for potential legislation to streamline the planning permissions for road building, from planting to harvesting? How and what are our strategies around that? That will be crucial to showing we will make a difference to these huge challenges, which the Minister of State has in some ways inherited, but we have to resolve. It is on our watch. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire Stáit for her time.