Carol Nolan demands emergency legislation to save forestry jobs

Goera, maa agat, laske an coirle. Tanaiste, I wish to raise with you again, I know I've raised this issue in the House a number of times, in relation to the deep, deep crisis that our forestry sector is currently in. About a year ago, almost a year ago now, we had a forestry bill introduced by the Minister of State, Minister Hackett, in which she pledged to address the ongoing difficulties and the backlog of licences. Now, we still have a situation almost a year later, where there's 6,000 licences, caught up in a backlog. It's totally unacceptable. Only earlier this week, we met members of the IFA and all of those stakeholders involved in forestry. And yet again, they're pleading with this government to bring forward emergency legislation to address this issue once and for all, and to protect the 10,000 jobs that are now at risk. This government is well able to bring emergency legislation forward at the drop of a hat when it's so vicious. Now, we have a situation in our forestry that is putting livelihoods at risk. And I know in my own constituency, forestry is very important in Leish Offaly. We have many people involved in terms of the sawmills, in terms of hauliers, and also in terms of foresters and farmers planting. But it is an ongoing crisis, and we need emergency legislation brought forward for that issue in terms of forestry, but also for the horticulture, where there's another 17,000 jobs in jeopardy. What is very noticeable about this government is that you seem to be totally disconnected from the reality and the lives and the hardship of working people in our country. I mean, we need protections here for these livelihoods. And yet the government is dragging its heels. There's lots of measures that could be brought forward. I know from speaking to the real experts, and I think that's the mistake this government makes. It doesn't speak to the people on the ground. It doesn't consult with the real experts, the stakeholders. And they're the people that have the knowledge. But from speaking to those stakeholders myself, it has been brought to my attention that there's many improvements and many things that could be done in addition to the emergency legislation, such as, for example, leaving out the tanning and management aspects involved in the process, which is making it a cumbersome and more bureaucratic process than it needs to be. Now, we know there are issues there in terms of the changes to appropriate assessment, but there are other jurisdictions who don't have issues like what we have and don't have a crisis. I mean, we're at a situation where we're importing timber into this country and the costs of building materials, the costs for people building new homes are increased and they have escalated considerably. And that is totally unacceptable because everybody is paying the price for the government's lack of action. But we need urgent action here. And I'll say it once again, please bring forward the emergency legislation for the forestry sector and for the horticulture sector. where up to 27,000 jobs could be protected. And I think that's significant. I want to thank the Deputy for raising this important issue, which I know you feel very sincerely about and I know you're passionate about and have raised before. But I do think your comment about the government was a bit unfair. We live in the same country as you do. We get elected by the same people just as you do. And we talk to people on the ground every day just like you do. And I think it's unfair to make comments about other people in this House in that way. We're all elected and we're only elected precisely because we do engage with our constituents and we talk to people on the ground all the time. I think that comment was very unfair. In relation to the issue of forestry licensing, the Government is very aware that there are serious issues with the licensing of forestry operations in Ireland, which are having a negative impact on the sector. This is as a result of necessary changes to the appropriate assessment procedure due to the European Court of Justice and Irish rulings relating to the protection of Natura sites. We are dealing with these issues robustly and a number of urgent steps have been taken to resolve them. These include the implementation of the MacKinnon report, which is well underway through Project Woodland. The project board and working groups have been meeting regularly since early March, while the project manager and business analyst have also been engaged. There's huge investment in resources with more ecologists, forestry inspectors and additional admin staff assigned to licensing. And we are seeing improvements in licensing output during the first half of this year. June was the highest month, in fact, to date. Over 1,770 licenses were issued so far this year. And that's a 29% increase on the same period last year. And while accepting that significant further gains are needed, we are now at last moving in the right direction. The average output for the last seven weeks alone is 95 licenses per week. And farmers were the biggest beneficiaries of this, receiving 75% of the licenses. The Department has received just over 3,000 applications to date this year. And that includes a batch application for 1,800 new applications from Quilce to cover their output for the next day. Of course, license output is only one measure of performance. And the more realistic metric is the volume of material licensed. And this is what really matters to the sector. In this regard, felling volumes are 77% higher than at the same point last year. The area for afforestation is 19% higher. Road lengths licensed are 121% higher. And Quilce's 2021 felling program is fully licensed. And they are working with the Department to ensure the availability of this supply to the market. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I made that point and it was actually factual that this government is disconnected. And I'm telling you honestly, I have spoken to Fine Gael people, supporters of your own party and Fianna Fáil supporters. And what I am genuinely and honestly saying to you that there is a serious level of disconnect. And you are not reaching out to the stakeholders and listening to the experts. It's well and good having a tokenistic meeting. But following through and committing and following through on your own commitments in the program for government. If you want to look at afforestation, the government is missing its own climate action targets. Where it commits to planting 8,000 hectares annually. You are missing your own targets. And I am hearing from all constituents, Tániste. I represent everybody. Everybody in the constituency. And like you, I was elected. But unlike you, Tániste, I listen to the people on the ground all of the time. And I carry through on my commitments. But I do want to also end on the point that it's very obvious that this government can't see the wood from the trees. There are 27,000 jobs at stake in horticulture and forestry. It could be easily resolved if you had the political will to do so. And if you listened to your own supporters, it would be done so. But it's because rural Ireland is neglected all of the time and isn't top of the agenda in your policies. And that's the real issue, the neglect of rural Ireland. Thank you, Tániste to respond. Thanks, Deputy. You know, we could all engage in cheap shots in this House. It's not. It's true. It's true. I'm telling it as it is. Let us Tániste to respond. Thanks, Tániste. As I say, we can all engage in cheap shots in this House and question each other's motivations. I could equally point out that this morning the agriculture ministers were here for an hour and a half, took questions on any issue that people raised. Agriculture, farming, fishing and forestry. And not a single rural independent turned up this morning to ask those ministers any questions. And I could say that that's... The pint of order. We hadn't a question. That's unfair. We didn't have a question. We didn't have an opportunity. That's totally unfair. And I want the Commission to withdraw that. We didn't have a question. That's unfair. We didn't have an opportunity to let the Tániste respond to it. We're two-tated. The last count, as it's often the case, I'm being shouted down because the truth hurts. The truth hurts. The last count, we please have that corrected because that's not the way the procedure's run. And it's giving misleading information and we're just asking for that to be corrected. It's very unprofessional for the Tawnish to hear to make such a charge, that's very unprofessional and it's unfactual.