Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is important to say this is enabling legislation. Not one tree will be planted under this legislation until the scheme is in place. That is important to know. Any trees planted outside of the scheme, if the area is more than 0.1 ha, will be subject to the regulations and the legislation under the current forestry Act.

To speak to Senator Higgins’s points, which I understand and take on board because many of them are valid, I can assure her that, for the past year and a half since I have taken office, I have not been going out of my way to take shortcuts. I have engaged like no other Minister of State in this role with environmental and community groups, and I continue to engage with them because I am wholly aware of the difficulties forestry has come through and where we need to get to with it.

On the amendments, amendment No. 2 essentially proposes to introduce a series of reports and assessments that would detail those areas where planting would not permitted, assessments of the protection of the environment, details of public consultation, and details of a system used to provide visibility in tracking of the areas to be planted for the purposes of public participation.

I would like to outline to the Senators how the design of any initiatives to utilise these measures will ensure compliance with all environmental law, such as the environmental impact assessment, EIA, the EU habitats directive and the EU water framework directive. In advance of the development of a scheme, the Department will be undertaking a strategic environmental assessment and appropriate assessment. The strategic environmental assessment, SEA, directive includes statutory requirements for the public to be able to participate in the process at specific stages to ensure there is transparency in the decision-making throughout the SEA process. The consultation process will engage with statutory authorities, outside bodies and the public. Following the completion of the SEA and subject to its findings, the Department will design a scheme and associated qualifying criteria. This may result in the introduction of additional measures, for example, with regard to the level of forest cover adjacent to domestic dwellings, including other environmental features.

I assure the Senators that a process to develop this scheme will be undertaken in a transparent manner and all reports will be available online as part of the strategic environmental assessment and appropriate assessment processes. For these reasons, I am not accepting these amendments.