Independent TD for Laois-Offaly Carol Nolan has questioned “the capacity of government to effectively respond” to the ongoing crisis in the forestry sector.
Deputy Nolan was speaking during a Dáil debate this week, when she said the government’s response “really is becoming like Groundhog Day”.
“TD’s have brought this issue up so many times at a cross-party level. It is shameful what is happening in our country. Timber is being imported.
“The government is missing its own climate change targets. That is crazy. The afforestation target was to plant 8,000ha annually, and the government is missing that target. That does not inspire confidence in any farmer to plant trees.”
Forestry crisis
The deputy said that Minister of State Pippa Hackett, who has responsibility for land use, must “prove herself and listen to us”.
“The frustrating thing for us all is that many of us put forward solid and good amendments asking the government to put timeframes in place in terms of the processing of licence applications,” deputy Nolan continued.
“It refused to do so. It refused to collaborate and rejected all of those amendments.
“Forestry contributes €2.3 billion to our economy. The Minister of State does not seem to grasp how important it is for farmers, foresters, sawmills and everyone in the sector.
“Our sawmills are going through a difficult time again. We have raised the issue with the Minister of State over the past year and a half, but she has not taken anything on board.”
The deputy said that she is hearing from stakeholders that Project Woodland “is failing miserably because it has not done what it was supposed to do”.
“That is the bottom line. The government needs to take urgent action to save a sector that is on the brink and to save 12,000 jobs, a big proportion of which are in the Minister of State’s constituency of Laois-Offaly, as she well knows.
“We do not need more reports from the government; we need action.”