Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and the Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Cahill. I commend my colleagues, Senators Boyhan, Boylan, Paul Daly and Lombard, on the quality of their work on this report. I found it incredibly informative and helpful. I am a Member for the agricultural panel and come from a farming background and it helped me get a sense of the issues facing small farmers in the forestry sector. I will briefly go through some of the notes in the report.

One of the notes is that the committee has been receiving a regular forestry licensing dashboard from the Department, which shows the number of licences issued. It would be a good idea to have this dashboard expanded. As is said in the report, and I agree with it, the dashboard needs to be expanded to show how long applications have been in the Department's system. I referenced this dashboard a few minutes ago in the health committee meeting on Sláintecare and suggested that these dashboards are very good not only for public representatives to be able to see what is happening but also for public accountability. I suggested something similar for the implementation of Sláintecare. Public accountability and accessible information are vital, whether it relates to forestry licences or the national roll-out of Sláintecare and the future of our healthcare system. This tool is extremely useful and it is helpful to see the rates of planting, although many of us would like to see more of it taking place.

The Minister of State was in the House last week when we were discussing recording hedgerows. She mentioned that we will not record that because it will send our numbers askew. I have been thinking about that in the interim and I know why we are not recording the cutting of hedgerows. However, it is part of the fact of the matter and it is important to have a way to track the cutting of hedgerows and its impact. If that makes us look not so great, that is the reality. It is important to have that accountability. I hope this dashboard is maintained as a point of information for many years to come.

In the section of the report relating to the programme for Government, the committee recommends that quarterly meetings take place between the Department and stakeholders to discuss and monitor the progress of its implementation. Will the Minister of State confirm if that recommendation has been taken on board and which stakeholders the Department is meeting with on this?

I was concerned when I read in the report about what the IFA has said. The IFA stated that this backlog is jeopardising jobs and businesses that have been built up over the past 40 years to support the expansion of the private forest sector. Reforestation is about a just transition and it was, arguably, the first big move to just transition jobs in Ireland. The core of just transition is that these are not just jobs but that they must be fair, well-paid, sustainable and secure jobs. If they are not, we will see people leaving this sector. We have seen that already, but that cannot become the norm. We definitely need more people signing up to this work, especially small farmers.

That leads me to my next point, which is the role of small farmers and the impact these delays are having on their participation in the process. Other Senators have referred to confidence in the system so I will not labour the point, but if people do not have confidence in the system, all the implementation plans in the world will not make a difference. I will quote my party colleague, Deputy Sherlock, as reported by Agriland the other day. Speaking on ambition in the sector he said:

I am not convinced ... that all of the stakeholders through Project Woodland are as enthusiastic about the future of forestry policy. I think some of those stakeholders are becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of ambition.

Ambition was mentioned here previously. If we have concerns about confidence in the sector and whether we are being ambitious enough, these are very big challenges to overcome. Does the Minister of State have any comments on those challenges? They are big challenges to overcome before we even get another tree into the ground.

The report mentions the need to incentivise smaller farmers in this industry. I encourage the Minister of State to take on board the recommendation regarding premiums on page 10 of the report. If large, commercial multinationals can get premiums paid over ten years, is it fair that farmers on smaller lands have to wait up to 20 years?

Ultimately, all these issues bring us back to the most important and cogent point, which is that we need to plant more trees, and the only way to do that is to ensure forestry licences are provided. Felling and planting licences are simply taking too long to be processed. We have been having this conversation for the two years I have been a Member of this House. Our environment, our agricultural workers and our biodiversity are suffering as a result. I look forward to hearing from the Minister of State about her strategies for resolving these issues and for progressing with cutting waiting times for planting licences, which is badly needed.