Q&A: Why is there a controversy over forestry legislation?

Why is there a controversy over forestry at the moment?

If you were to think of one issue that might seem wholly non-controversial, it might be forestry. Ireland has one of the lowest levels of forest coverage in the EU and just about everybody from across the political spectrum agrees that planting more trees would be a good thing. But that’s where the agreement ends.

Forestry is a highly regulated industry in Ireland and new plantations and activities such as felling require a licence. The Government has argued that appeals against licences have been so voluminous that the Forestry Appeals Committee has been overwhelmed. This has created a forestry activity backlog and there have been warnings from the sector about job security and supply shortages.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin claimed on Tuesday that the industry could grind to a halt by November. He said the main reason for this would be “serial objections on an industrial scale which is not merited and is not fair”.

Who is appealing the licences and how many have there been?

Appeals come from many quarters including local people who object to plantations for various reasons such as aesthetics (a big block of forestry can hugely change he landscape) and the impact such plantations (often acidic) will have on agriculture, soil composition, road networks and on water courses.

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There has been an increasing volume of objections from environmentalists in recent years who have argued that the State’s reliance on monoculture species such as Sitka Spruce runs counter to biodiversity policy. Essentially, they argue that broadleaf and native species should be planted and not only on marginal land.

There are currently more than 400 appeals active and with the Forestry Appeals Committee, according to the Department of Agriculture. But there are only being cleared at a rate of about 20 a month, meaning it could take up to two years to get these appeal processes completed.

Labour TD Seán Sherlock said he knew of four applications for licences that remained in the system for between 500 and 850 days, which was “unconscionable” and “beggared belief”.

What is the Government doing in response?

It has brought forward what is essentially emergency legislation - the Forestry (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. Pre-legislative scrutiny was dispensed with and the Bill, proposed by Minister of State for Forestry Pippa Hackett, will be brought through the Seanad and the House within a week.

It has been designed to expedite the process and essentially reduce the number of objections and reduce the backlog of appeals. But the measures proposed to achieve that have been controversial.

The first was the status of those who appealed. The original Bill proposed to limit parties entitled to object to "relevant persons". This was intended to stop serial objectors – "tree huggers" as Mattie McGrath bluntly described them in the Dáil – slowing down the licence process.

Many of the 9,000 submissions to a public consultation on the issue expressed opposition to the relevant person requirement, as this would considerably narrow who could object to a plantation. Hackett has since removed it.

However, there is a new requirement that those who lodge an appeal must pay a fee, which has caused anger. There has also been questions asked about the time period in which an appeal can be lodged – 28 days which can be reduced to 14 days by Ministerial directive.

More practical measures include allowing the appeals body to consider more than one case at at time, which should streamline the process. The Minister can also issue a directive to prioritise some applications, but must have “regard to ensure an economic and environmental sustainably yield of forestry goods and services”.

What’s the basis of the objections to the Bill?

There are many, and from both sides for the debate. Rural TDs like Mr McGrath think it is too weak and will not allow the timber industry to get back on its feet. Environmental groups like the Irish Wildlife Trust and Friends of the Irish Environment think it is all happening too fast, and are critical of some of the provisions including the fees.

They argue the Ministerial directive fails “to take into account the communities most affected by industrial conifer afforestation (and therefore) eliminates the most important stakeholders”.

There have been ideological objections to it supporting the private timber industry and environmental objections that it support the continuation of single-species plantation.

However, the main parties on the Government and Opposition sides seem to agree to the need for legislation but differ in relation to detail. More than 100 amendments were tabled in the Seanad and a similar number is expected in the Dáil as the debate continues this week.