Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Senator O'Loughlin to the Chair. It is befitting today, St. Brigid's Day, and I wish everyone well in the celebrations. I had the pleasure yesterday to be in Kildare at an eve of St. Brigid's event. It was a fantastic event and the people in the heart of County Kildare, which is Kildare town, were bowled over. It was also great to see how they have reinvigorated and redefined that public realm and space in the heart of Kildare town. I congratulate all those people, including public representatives here, who were involved in the run-up to that.

I will talk about forestry, specifically forestry licensing. I want to see a sustainable forestry sector emerge in Ireland that can achieve commercial, climate and biodiversity goals. I want to see a reduction in the volume of imported timbers in this country. I want improvements to the forestry licensing scheme, which is currently causing a tremendous backlog and damaging and impacting on the potential for the industry. A recent harvest licensing dashboard indicated the private sector, mainly farmers, received 26 felling licences, while Coillte received almost double that at around 51. There is a debate and an argument between farmers and private forestry owners and Coillte concerning the proportionality in the administration of licensing. That is a real issue.

The Department has clearly failed in its targets for 2021, with only 4,500 licences. I call for a debate specifically on licences, not on the bigger issue of forestry. We have an enormous demand for forestry, both for harvesting and felling. We need to address the issue. We have a Senator and Minister of State with special responsibility who would, I know, be more than happy to come to this House. I would like a debate on the issue of planting licensing.