Private forestry group, the Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association of Ireland (SEEFA), will protest next week outside the Dáil to “prevent the demise of the private forest sector” according to SEEFA founding member, Paddy Bruton, of Forestry Services Limited and Euroforest Ireland.
SEEFA has invited more than 70 TDs to a ‘political outreach day’ in Buswells Hotel next Tuesday (November 2) where the group will relay their concerns and inform politicians about the state of the forestry sector in Ireland, Paddy explained.
The following day (Wednesday, November 3) approximately 100 SEEFA members will gather outside the Dáil, he confirmed.
“We have heard enough of the empty promises and failed promises, and non delivery of the forest service’s own soft targets – the issuance of licences,” he told Agriland.
While next week’s protest will comprise SEEFA members only, Paddy said the group has the best interests of the entire industry at heart. This, he said, includes the forest owners and farmers who are all impacted.
“This is not an industry solo run, we have the best interests of the growers and industry at heart.”
Delays and backlogs
According to SEEFA, currently over 1,000 afforestation applications and thousands of felling and road licence applications are still awaiting a decision by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
In 2020 just 2,300ha of an 8,000ha afforestation target was met by the DAFM. And, it has confirmed that the 2021 target of 4,500ha will not be reached either.
“We are gone past the point where talking to Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister Charlie McConalogue or the senior civil servants in the department [DAFM], will do us any good.
“We have been doing it for years and now we have been left with no choice but to protest,” Paddy said.
He added that, as an industry, the decision to protest has been a difficult one.
“We are very proud of our industry but we cannot continue in the manner we have done for years, through talking and discussion and engagement. We have been left with no choice.”
He said the “single biggest obstacle to the sector is the forest service of the DAFM” which, he said, must “change its can’t-do attitude to a can-do attitude”.
‘Everyone is paying more’
The SEEFA founding member said that the current licensing problem is having a domino effect on other industries and citizens across the country.
“Everyone knows that timber for building houses or for building sheds on farms has increased hugely in price.
“That increase can be attributed to the DAFM not issuing licences to the forest owners of this country so they can harvest the timber, which would put more sawn wood on the market, which would reduce the price.
“Because the DAFM isn’t issuing licences, to allow the timber to be harvested, everyone is paying more. So, everybody building a house is paying more for their mortgage because of this.”
SEEFA is seeking five things:
- Maximum timelines on every application in a functioning licensing system;
- Full implementation of the MacKinnon Report in a defined timeframe;
- Political support allied to leadership, management and a can-do attitude of the forest service;
- Full integration of afforestation in the next Common Agricultural Policy;
- A forestry development agency to promote and represent the sector.
Social media protest
Next week’s protest comes on the back of a series of smaller social-media demonstrations staged by SEEFA this week.
Members of SEEFA took to social media while standing outside the offices of various government ministers and TDs, where they called on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to intervene.
“It is time for change,” they told him.