Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. We also had statements on forestry last year. I hope that the next time we see the Minister of State here talking about forestry, we will actually be implementing legislation to improve the situation.

Members have spoken about the crisis we have and the long delays, with 5,000 applications in the system at the moment. This proves that there is an incredible interest and a want for what we are discussing. The media like to think we are dragging farmers by the scruff of the necks into being environmental but there are 5,000 applications, granted that 2,000 relate to Coillte. That shows farmers are open-minded towards growing trees and carbon sequestration. We have to support them and move to action.

I commend the Minister of State. When she came in, she was given a poisoned chalice in this regard. There is a huge issue with the granting of licences in this country in general. We have seen the problem with peat, which has fallen through a licensing crack or a legislative crack, whatever the case may be. This situation has been ongoing for more than a decade. We are getting to a crisis point in that we are in stasis and cannot move on.

Anyone who knows me will know I am a huge advocate for native Irish trees. First, they are a clear form of carbon sequestration and they are a pathway to becoming a cleaner and greener country, but they also hold an awful lot of our heritage. Three of our counties – Mayo, Derry and Kildare - are named after trees, as are many townlands. There is an incredible amount of knowledge in our townlands. I think of Anaverna in my home county, which is named after the alder tree, although I doubt there is an alder left in Anaverna. Would it not be lovely to start putting in trees that fit into the townlands, given that they are supposed to be there? We think of areas with the word “cuileann”, which is the holly tree. They were there and those townlands are named after them for a reason. Let us start embracing and using that because our ancestors were very wise to our ecology before they even had the word “ecology”.

We speak about a crisis and about an emergency. We had the Covid crisis and we brought in emergency legislation. We took that, we grabbed hold of it and we changed things very dramatically. We had different recruitment processes for healthcare workers and we started breaking down bureaucracy. This is not just for the Minister of State and it is a whole-of-government problem that relates to the procurement of staff within the entire public system. We have a problem with hiring people. The Minister of State mentioned that we have dramatically increased the number of ecologists; I think there were just two when the Minister of State came into office, or very near that, and we now have a dramatically higher number. That is all down to the Minister of State and her ambition towards our forestry sector.

One thing I would like to highlight is my disappointment that the CAP plan did not contain a hedgerow management scheme. That is a huge door. We have over 700,000 km of hedgerow in the country and, all along our roadsides, they are a highway for biodiversity and sequestration. I hope there will be a proper hedgerow management plan. Even on our motorways, they are cutting down trees to the bare roots and I ask why that is happening. We sit on the M1, seeing bare roots, when it would be far nicer to see trees and wildlife while driving by.

Members spoke about the streamlining of the process, which is very important. For want of a better word, we want a one-stop shop so that, if I want to plant trees on my land, I will go to this Department and it will be taken care of, and I will not have to deal with different organisations and different planning processes.

I apologise for running over time, but I have so much to say on this. I wish the Minister of State the very best of luck.