There have been no licences.

That is a ridiculous thing to say.

The Government has only planted 2,000 ha this year.

The Minister is way off target.

It is not functioning. It was suspended.

The Minister needs a reality check.

Rubbish.

We know all of that. It was suspended.

This is real life that we are talking about.

This is Jesuitical nonsense.

I thank Deputy Kelly for sharing time. The Coillte-Gresham House partnership seems wrong on many levels. It is an arrangement which, on the face of it, facilitates the expatriation of millions of euro from Irish taxpayers' pockets into the hands of fund managers and on that basis, let me state that we vehemently oppose this arrangement. The taxpayer will not benefit by one penny from this entity and the language used to describe how much land will be acquired has varied from anywhere between 3,000 ha, such as we ha…

-----and I have the right to speak here through the Chair, the upper limit on how much land will be acquired has not been absolutely and definitely defined. Who knows how much land will be acquired and it will have the effect of displacing farmers from farming activity. It is on that basis that we absolutely oppose it. In other words, this entity is hell-bent on acquiring as much land as it can grab and right now, neither the Irish taxpayer nor the Government has any say or control whatsoever. The Government was as…

----their figures are there. I will finish my speech uninterrupted, if I may, because I have only 25 seconds left. The Government fell asleep at the wheel on this one. They are out the gap on this one but there may be hope for the Government to politically use whatever might and main it can to pull this back from the brink because we do not want a situation where taxpayers' money by way of premiums, ends up in London or wherever, on the backs and through the sweat of the Irish forestry sector. If the Government wor…

The metrics speak from themselves. The Minister is cutting down more trees than he is planting.

I welcome the motion, which we support. I also acknowledge the bona fides of the Ministers opposite in trying to fix a perennial problem. I read the Minister's speech carefully but feel that there is much more that can be done to increase capacity. The Minister refers to the investment in diagnostics and primary care in particular. It is all well and good to state that the HSE has added 90 additional primary care teams in the country but there is still an issue in that people in the constituency I represent cannot …

What of the marine consents?

I thank Deputy Nash for sharing time. I will read into the record some of the contents of an email I received on Monday from a Mr. Justin Moran of Wind Energy Ireland in respect of its concerns about the foreshore aspects of this Bill. Our industry is concerned that the effect of what is proposed will be to slow the development of renewable energy and undermine efforts to deliver the legally binding carbon emissions reductions required by the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021. This is b…

It is wonderful to hear the sound of young voices in the Chamber, which represents a wonderful continuation. I want to extend to Mrs. Aylward and her family, on behalf of the Labour Party, our deepest sympathy on the passing of Bobby. I was first elected to the Dáil in 2007 and I served on the Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food with Bobby. Like every Member of this House, I found him to be a warmhearted and decent person who was collegiate. He was partisan in the sense that he was staunch Fianna Fáil but …

I am glad to put my name to this motion, which states: "during the past 25 years of a law-enforcement approach to drug abuse, drug-related deaths have increased by 225 per cent, compared to a 68 per cent reduction in road deaths in the same period, with the total number of such deaths well exceeding 10,500." That is 10,500 lives and 10,500 families. The multiplied consequences of this are horrific to imagine. The motion also states: — Ireland now has the joint-highest rate of drug-induced deaths among 16 to 64-year…

May I be permitted to make a very short point of order?