Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the Senators for their very constructive suggestions on this. I have an update on amendment No. 7. There had been a request previously for a note to be sent from my Department to supply statistics on local electoral areas. I can confirm that this had been forwarded on as part of the debate on that amendment.

I thank Senator Higgins for the comprehensive explanation and description behind the rationale for putting forward this amendment. Senator Pauline O'Reilly described very well the rationale behind this Bill and the objective to promote forestry and native woodland planting, and that it is very much born from the passion to improve and increase on that planting.

Senator Higgins's amendment proposes to insert four additional categories of conditions that may be prescribed under a regulation. It is asking that the legislation would prescribe specifically what should happen under the regulation. I believe that the existing conditions in the Bill provide ample scope to include the points raised by the Senator in the proposed amendment. In particular, the Bill references conditions having regard to the environment and to environmental law, which would be an integral component of any new scheme developed. The Bill as it stands requires that this would have to be a key component of any new scheme that is developed by the Department under this legislation and under regulations.

The requirements for conditions will be fully considered also during the strategic environmental assessment, in which, very importantly, the public will be able to participate. The public will be able to feed in and contribute as part of that and the appropriate assessment. Following on from the completion of both of those, and subject to their findings, the Department would then finalise the design of the scheme and associated qualifying criteria, which would then become conditions of the plantation scheme itself.

As Senator Pauline O'Reilly said, there are things that are appropriate to regulation and there are matters that are appropriate to the actual scheme itself, and then there are the key overarching principles that are contained in primary legislation, which we are passing here. I feel that the issues being raised, on which the Senators have very constructively contributed, can be included and considered as part of those assessments in advance of any scheme being put in place and, very importantly, it provides the opportunity for the public to participate in that formulation also.