Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I probably will not require that amount of time, but I thank the Acting Chairperson for that.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. There have been problems with committees publishing reports and the reports being left on shelves. However, the Seanad debating and discussing reports is a new initiative. It has not often happened in previous terms in which I have served. I believe it is a good initiative and I commend the committee on the work it has done. This debate is very useful.

We know the importance of forestry. We know the challenges that the timber industry has faced recently. We know what impact forestry can have on the environment. We also know of examples where forestry has had a severe negative effect on the lives of communities and people. This does not happen all the time but it happens some of the time. We have a responsibility to ensure the structures that are in place going forward in terms of forestry achieve a number of things. First, they must encourage people to engage in the industry of planting and forestry. This is essential from an environmental and economic perspective. Realistically, there are many thousands of acres of land that are only suitable for forestry or wind farms, and we need both. It is an industry that has the potential for significant growth going forward.

Second, the timber industry employs thousands of people in this country but, unfortunately, we have been importing far too much timber in recent times in particular. We do not need to import the amount of timber we import into this country. We have the capability and the land to grow our own trees and provide our own timber. We need to engage and deal with that issue.

Third, we must respect the people who live in areas where forestry is grown. We do not have the right to remove somebody's view and darken a person's house by planting trees. I do not believe we have the right to do that. In addition, people who live in an area should not have the right to object to forestry for the sake of objecting to forestry. What we need is an appropriate licensing system that reflects the needs we clearly have for forestry from an environmental perspective and so on, respects people who live in forestry communities and, furthermore, ensures that people who live in these communities cannot prevent forestry from being planted for the sake of it.

The three principles I have put forward exist in planning. God knows planners do not always get it right, but at least the infrastructure is there. There is a system where people apply for planning. A person can make a submission within five weeks. If people are not satisfied, they can appeal it to An Bord Pleanála. That does not happen when it comes to forestry. I have never understood why it does not happen and it should happen. Perhaps it should not be a carbon copy of the planning application process but there should be more of a public consultation process involved.

There is also a serious problem in the matter of felling trees. We spoke about this before. Coillte is a company I do not have a problem naming. Coillte has been involved in a situation in my county, Clare, in which it has engaged in significant felling. It gets permission to do this. The lorries are overloaded with timber and the roads, which are mainly built on bog, are destroyed. Coillte makes its money, moves out and then the people living in the area have to navigate roads that destroy their cars and are, frankly, dangerous. I believe the licensing system should facilitate a survey of roads before a licence to fell trees is granted. I have spoken about this before. The local authority should carry out a study of the road, engage with the forestry company and outline the state of the road.After the tree felling engagement has finished, there should be a survey done on the state of the road. The situation should then be dealt with because local authorities do not have endless budgets to fix roads that, quite frankly, have been destroyed by forestry. There are some cases where Coillte and others correctly checked and restored roads to their previous condition, but there are many examples where that does not happen.

When tree felling takes place over a number of years, as it does in certain parts of my constituency and elsewhere, there needs to be a road maintenance programme during that process. All of that could be ironed out through a survey by the local authority.. While local authorities are required to do that, they should be legally obliged to do so and there should be no excuse for not doing so. Good practice happens in 80% of the country and bad practice in 20%, but that is not good enough. There should be good practice in 100% of the country. When the 20% decide to engage in bad practice, the rigours of the law should deal with that and current and future licences should be revoked until such time as roads are restored to the condition they were in before the felling happened.

Overall, I want to be positive because I am a big supporter of tree planting. As I have said, it is essential from an environmental perspective. It is something we can do and should be doing. It has already provided a very meaningful livelihood for thousands of families in this country and can provide a meaningful livelihood to tens of thousands of families in the country.

I agree with Senator Burke that there should be a system whereby people can sell trees without selling land. We need to be a little bit more imaginative in the ways in which we can make it attractive for people to engage in planting trees because it is a long-term project over 20 or 30 years.

The job the Minister of State does is extremely important. We are delighted somebody from the Seanad is at the heart of Government and driving this agenda. It is to be hoped that over the next couple of years the Minister of State's agenda will grow and, when the Government's term is over, she will be able to say there was significant achievement in this particular area. It is a niche but extremely important area.

I again acknowledge the work of the joint committee and look forward to seeing the recommendations implemented. I also look forward to the common-sense recommendations and suggestions made here today being implemented and included in the programme.