Ireland's sawmills have run out of timber
Because the legislation under the new Forestry Act hasn't been implemented, the industry is in chaos, says FII. Picture: iStock
‘The sawmills have run out of timber and the forestry sector has little or no planting programme ahead of it for the winter. People are being laid off across the industry and the sector is in a state of emergency.’
This, according to industry experts, is the current state of the forestry sector which is as a result of the delay in implementing legislation under the new Forestry Act passed just two weeks ago.
The Act aims to provide for all matters relating to forestry including reporting on the activities of the Forestry Appeals Committee (FAC); enabling it to sit in divisions to determine appeals, procedures and arranging for conduct of appeals; and the payment of fees to the committee in respect of appeals.
Mark McAuley, Forest Industries Ireland (FII) said that following the Act there had been an expectation that the reforms would be implemented rapidly and this would subsequently lead to “inroads being made into the backlog of appeals”.
“The legislation has not been implemented on the ground and the industry is in chaos; there is widespread dismay across the board and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine was given the tools but didn’t move and is now missing all its targets.
Meanwhile, under the new legislation, the FAC was to be divided in a way that would allow multiple appeals to be dealt with simultaneously and provide for a more efficient way of dealing with hearings by using a desk-based assessment.
But, Mr McAuley says that current trends indicate that about 20 appeals are being heard per month, and the backlog will “never clear” at this rate.
“We will never clear the backlog without an end to oral hearings and four or five FAC divisions,” he continued.
“Additional resources must be immediately appointed to increase the capacity of the FAC and there needs to be a rapid acceleration in the rate of appeals being processed - there is no evidence whatsoever of any acceleration at the moment.
“The FAC should split into multiple divisions with two members constituting a quorum while deputy chairpersons can be appointed as required.
“It should set itself a target of dealing with at least 30 appeals per week to clear the backlog by the end of January.
“The Department has suggested that the appeals backlog will be dealt with by the end of January, but there is zero evidence of this being achievable.
“It will be another target missed by the Department just like all the targets it has set for the processing of forestry applications.
“The Department’s output is a fraction of its own project plan and the current approach and performance can only be described as dysfunctional.
“All of this and leaves the industry hanging on by a thread.”
