The Minister might shave six months off the 12-month period.

Hear, hear.

Good.

That would be very useful.

It is more than Senators get.

I will not call a vote.

It has. It was not entirely successful.

I thank the Minister, in particular, and his advisers for being here with us this evening. I thank the Bills Office which was of great help in preparing both the explanatory memorandum and the legislation itself, which does in fact fulfil the spirit of the Scally report. I will make a point to the Minister that I had intended to make but did not get around to. Can he please consider putting Les Martin on the committee? The Minister spoke about having patient representatives. This is the man who led the whole progra…

One could have a joint.

It is very relaxing.

I move amendment No. 1: In page 3, line 26, after “Oireachtas.” to insert the following: “A copy of the report will at the same time be made available to the public on the Government of Ireland website and the Government Publications Office.”. I am concerned that we have not received a list of the groupings of amendments and it would be helpful to have one. I certainly did not get one. Some Members did and others did not. I have not got one yet. We have in the past few minutes got a list of the amendments that have…

It would have been helpful and I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach. My amendment proposes that "a copy of the report will at the same time be made available to the public on the Government of Ireland website and the Government Publications Office.". This is a fairly straightforward amendment and I do hope very much that the Government will be able to accede to it. This is all in the light of fostering public debate and public inquiries into the question of appeals. I would like to reiterate what I said the other day be…

They will be busy in the forests.

If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise.

It is not just a dog's dinner but a teddy bears' picnic too.

I am grateful to the Minister of State for accepting this amendment. I was briefed on this extensively by a constituent, Ms Sabrina Joyce, who is a great grand-niece of the writer, James Joyce. She will be very glad to hear that this amendment was successful. I appeal to the Leas-Chathaoirleach to revisit his judgment about amendments Nos. 101 and 102 in the name of Senator Higgins because the Title is the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. That takes in everything connected with forestry. There is no confli…

I support this amendment. It seems eminently sensible. What we need is expertise. One does not want people who know nothing about forestry on these committees. What is needed are people with skills and experience in the area of forestry; this and another amendment lists biodiversity, water quality, climate change and environmental legislation. This is eminently sensible. I cannot see any argument against including expertise. These are the people we want, not simply passengers.

Ten? Is it not eight?

The Green Party got eight.

I compliment the Leas-Chathaoirleach on his elevation, which is a most appropriate appointment. I am astonished that a Green Party Minister of State would introduce legislation of this kind to the House. I recall the Heritage Bill some years ago when I was the only person to object to the introduction of legislation that would threaten many of the most endangered wild bird species. I got no support whatever on the first occasion I raised this and that was very worrying. It is astonishing that this Bill should be ru…