Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to speak to amendment No. 9. In this House a few hours ago, several Members were present when we debated the forestry industry, including the Minister of State. It was a really important debate. We spoke about the report that was published 12 months ago, which was debated again today, and that outlined the 12 recommendations required for the industry to move forward. The Minister of State gave a very comprehensive response regarding those issues.

For those of us who have read the report and know the absolute chaos the industry has gone through over the past three years, in particular, the afforestation part was the crying shame. Because of what happened and because of unbelievable objections and confidence being sucked out of the industry, the afforestation programme fell to less than 30%. That is a blight on all our houses, in some ways.