Micheál Carrigy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is very welcome. I concur with the comments of Senator Garvey. We might be a small county in Longford, but we have always been to the fore in a lot of things and I was delighted to hear her mention Mr. John Crossan.

On tourism, two weekends ago I spent some time in Center Parcs Longford Forest. It was probably the best weekend break I have ever had and was just 20 minutes from my own doorstep. I thoroughly recommend it for those of us in political life to get away from the heat and get back to nature. It was very enjoyable.

I welcome the report and pay tribute to the Chair, Deputy Cahill, and all members of the committee. I hope the Minister of State will take on board the recommendations because they concern the long-term future of the industry. When I was elected to Seanad Éireann and we began sitting in July 2020, this was one of the first matters brought to my attention. Unfortunately, 18 months later, we still have issues.

Glennon Brothers Timber Limited, in my home county, is probably the biggest timber producer in the country.It recently purchased Balcas, which employs in the region of 300 people. It needs a supply of timber to ensure the sustainability of the business. The reality is we want to build 30,000 or more houses every year over the next ten years. We will need a sufficient supply of timber. The cost of timber has, according to reports, increased by between 45% and 50% over the past 12 months. There has been a significant increase in the amount of timber-framed houses being built due to energy efficiency. We have to start hitting our targets and producing timber.

In 2020, 4,050 licences were issued, an increase of 56%, which is very welcome. We have set a target of 5,250. In January 2022, we still had 4,803 licence applications on hand, of which 64 were for afforestation, and 293 licences were issued. That is a good start, but it is not sufficient. The reality is that needs to be ramped up. If people feel they will not have a licence issued in a timely manner, many will move away from the thought of even planting forestry. That land is then lost forever.

As a Government, we have set a target of planting 8,000 ha of new forest every year. I ask the Minister of State to clarify a recent announcement. We set a target of 1,040 forestation licences to be approved this year. However, based on averages from previous years, that would only result in about 4,000 ha being planted. I ask the Minister of State to clarify whether I am wrong. We would be 4,000 ha short in that case, while I feel we should be setting higher targets for ourselves if we are going to have a sufficient supply into the future and not import timber.

I understand in the region of 450 licences for forests were issued to individuals and these have not been utilised. The total number of hectares associated with them is in the region of 4,000 ha of forestry that has not been planted, despite the fact people have been granted licences. Perhaps we should put a timeline in place within which people must plant forest after having been granted a licence.

I also agree with a recommendation in the report on the reality of the planning system. There are timescales set down in terms of the number of weeks involved when seeking planning permission for a house. We need to have a one-stop shop and roll all licences into one system to speed up supply.

I was on Longford County Council. When Coillte and other companies, in particular private companies, go to cut out forestry, they do not need to notify the local authority and the local roads engineer does not know what is happening. I know of a number of instances where I happened to hear by word of mouth that cutting was happening. A road was due to be resurfaced under the roads plan for the year, but the project had to be pulled because forestry was being cut out. There was no point in spending a significant amount of taxpayers' money resurfacing a road when it would have to be redone after the forestry had been cut out.

I would like a couple of answers on those queries, in particular licences that have been issued but has not been acted upon.