I thank the Senator for his kind words at the start of his remarks. I am here on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who is taking Oral Questions in the other House. It is a rather unfortunate clash but that is the way it goes. I thank the Senator for the opportunity to address this issue in the House today. This Government is committed to a fundamental change in the nature of transport in Ireland. We believe that to deliver on this commitment means we need a whole-system perspective across all modes of tran…

Indeed, those are my scribbled notes. I did not bring the original copies with me so the Senator is getting some inside information.

I queried that before I came up here. I asked about it because I noticed there was mention of other options in the script. I chatted with some of the officials from the Department of Transport. That turn-back facility in St. Stephen's Green seems a potential option. I could certainly engage with the officials and find out if there are other options because the script indicates that there are. I am interested to know what those options are. I will pass that information back and if I get information to share with the…

The Senator is fine.

I move: "That Second Stage be taken now."

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I welcome the opportunity to introduce the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. I thank the Dáil's Business Committee for agreeing to waive the requirement for pre-legislative scrutiny of the general scheme of the Bill due to the urgency of the need to introduce this legislation. For the same reason, I have requested that this House consider a motion to enable the President to sign the Bill earlier than would be routine. Since being appointed Minister of State…

I thank the Cathaoirleach, the Leas-Chathaoirleach and all my fellow Senators for their contributions. I welcome the fact there has been a great deal of engagement from the House on this, which is very useful to me. I reiterate that the purpose of amending the existing legislation is to improve the functioning of the forestry appeals system so that it will meet the needs of all the stakeholders involved. They range from appellants to foresters, and the whole way through. The proposals in the Bill will provide citiz…

Next Friday.

The Mackinnon report, which was carried out by Jim Mackinnon, the former chief planner of the Scottish Government, reviewed the forestry approval process and related issues in Ireland.  This was similar to an exercise which Mr. Mackinnon had previously conducted for the Scottish authorities. It was published at the end of last year and presented to the forestry programme implementation group in January. Its implementation is one of the commitments which the Government made for forestry in the programme for Governme…

I thank the Deputy for his kind words. The Mackinnon report did, indeed, highlight that lack of political priority for forestry. It is something of which I am very aware. We are missing our afforestation targets by a long way. The commitments in the programme for Government were highly ambitious for forestry, far more so than any previous programme. I am really looking forward to getting my forestry implementation group off the ground and starting the process of devising a new forestry programme for Ireland. It wil…

Am I to answer all of these? I was not prepared for this, I am sorry. It was a rookie error, perhaps.

I will do my best. I was scribbling down notes. In response to Deputy Kehoe, yes, I have a visit already in my diary for Friday to None-So-Hardy. I am glad we are all out of restriction now so I hope that will happen.

I am looking forward to that visit very much. I was aware of the destruction of many hundreds of thousands of young trees, which was an absolute travesty really. I hope that is not something we will see repeated. Nurseries need a significant run-in time and to see trees like that destroyed is a sad state of affairs. On how forestry fits in with communities, I am very aware of that. Any new forestry programme will certainly need to listen to those communities. There is a lot to be learned. There is a legacy issue wi…

I will certainly take into account the comments made.

A visit, indeed I would love that.

The Joint Committee on Climate Action launched its final, cross-party report, entitled Climate Change: A Cross-Party Consensus for Action on 16 April 2019. Its implementation was a matter for the previous Government, which adopted some of the measures in its own climate action plan for 2019. This Government is proposing to revisit that plan and publish its own climate Bill this autumn. The joint committee's report acknowledged that it "was not in a position to examine afforestation in any level of adequate detail".…

My commitment is to develop a new forestry programme. In that process I would like to engage with stakeholders and politicians all across the board to design the programme. If part of that process involves looking at the remit of Coillte, I would certainly welcome that. I am looking forward to embarking on that programme. There is an ambitious forestry programme outlined in the programme for Government, which I think the Deputy would accept. Once we embark on it we will have a very robust forestry programme that wi…

I fully acknowledge the difficulties and problems in the forestry sector. I also acknowledge that we have legacy problems from poor decisions made over the past number of decades. That is something this Government is acknowledging and is appreciative of, and it is something we want to fix and improve upon. That is why we achieved the ambitious forestry commitments in the programme for Government, which are more ambitious than those of any previous programme. We have been in government for the past two and a half mo…

It is an honour to address the House in the other House's Chamber. It is comforting to see my fellow Senators, Oireachtas Members and staff wearing their face masks at this crucial stage of the Covid crisis. Nobody needs reminding that this crisis has gripped our country since the middle of March. It has wreaked havoc on our day-to-day lives, shut down schools and businesses, impacted jobs and livelihoods, and sadly, cost many people their lives. At the beginning of this crisis, the collective community-based appro…