Paraic Brady (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate our colleague, Senator Kyne.

I speak today on the great damage done to forestry throughout Ireland by the storm. We have now come to a crisis situation where many of these forests will have to be removed and harvested. Unfortunately, every forest needs a licence. In the years gone by, we have seen that it takes up to two and half years to get a licence to remove a forest. I hope and ask that this House would seek that the Minister with responsibility would fast-track these licences and that the forestry companies would try to give a fair price to the people who own these forests. Many of them are owned by individuals who have undertaken it for their own investment.Now we have an investment on the ground that is close to worthless. With the new legislation, the cost of harvesting and selling this will only pay for the cost of replanting the land that has been destroyed. I therefore ask that the Minister and the powers that be attend a task force on where we are going to go with all the forestry that is on the ground, what its carbon footprint is, what damage has been done and how we can compensate these companies and farmers.