Danny Healy-Rae backs 8-week decision on failure license
Danny Healy-Rae spoke in committee, supporting Deputy Fitzmaurice's amendment that eight weeks (60 days) would be sufficient for a decision on a failure license. He defended plantation owners' right to harvest, criticised Deputy Boyd Barrett's remarks and urged the minister to act to prevent industry paralysis.
Amendment supported
Healy-Rae said he will support the amendment for an eight-week/60-day decision timeline on a failure license and suggested that a five-week period for an appellant to make an appeal or submission should also be included, comparable to planning application timetables.
Defense of plantation owners
Healy-Rae argued that many plantations were planted in the late 1940s and 1950s, have been harvested multiple times and grow back faster on subsequent rotations. He said landowners who accepted grants to plant should have a fair presumption that they will be allowed to cut their plantations when mature.
Procedures and land reclamation
Healy-Rae noted that once a plantation is cut under a failure license the land cannot be reclaimed for other uses unless an equivalent area is replanted. He referenced local examples and past practice in obtaining licences without issue before a recent rise in appeals.
Criticism of opposing remarks
Healy-Rae told Deputy Boyd Barrett that his contributions had "gone off the rails," saying Barrett did not understand the issue and suggesting his comments were delaying progress. He insisted the debate should remain relevant to the committee stage and the timeframe decision.
Industry impact and appeal to the minister
Healy-Rae warned that haulers, harvesters, forwarders and sawmills are effectively at a standstill and appealed to the minister to heed the amendments. He called on colleagues and the rural independent group to ensure the bill is practical and delivers for people seeking failure licences.
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Thank you all, thank you very much last one caller and first of all I will be supporting Deputy Fitzmaurice's amendment where he's saying that eight weeks or 60 days would be a sufficient time for a decision on a failure license and I think that's laudable I don't know if and deserves praise I don't know if that includes that there should be five weeks allowed for the appellant to make the appeal or a submission because I think that should be part of it as well the very same as a planning application for a house or for the biggest commercial venture ever thought of that they have the rules that the local authorities and I think they have worked fine in thousands and maybe millions of applications I have to say to Deputy Boyd Barrett I respect you an awful lot you do an awful lot of talking and an awful lot of good work but you have actually gone off the rails this evening you've gone off the track and I honestly say to you that it's a good job that it's a good job that you're elected here and that you have a salary out of Dalian because if you didn't you wouldn't make a living out of forestry anyway I can guarantee you that I can guarantee you that because you just don't know what you're talking about because in the first place the forests that we have talked about many demons are at that thought cutting down they have been planted back in the late 40s and early 50s they were cut down 30 years after that and they were cut down 25 or 30 years after that again because they grow quicker the second time because there's more vegetation and and it's a recognized fact that they grow quicker the second time and even the third time so I can even point out to one forestry in Kilgavin that's it it's at its torch stage and there's one little patch of it caught my father actually worked there in the early 50s with a speed and a shovel and that's what he learned to drive a bulldozer as well by the way but anyway these had no problem the last the forced two rounds in getting the failing license it is only to the at this stage and going back about two years that these bligards started appealing the applications for failing licenses and I believe that when a person a landowner or whether it was Quilter or whatever when they planted their forestry and got a grant to plant it it should be they should have a fair presumption that they would be allowed to be allowed to cut it down and it's very wrong of anyone here there or anywhere to suggest that those plantations that we are talking about would be that the people that own them would be denied the right to cut them down there's other natural trees there's other natural trees and other trees in different places a different story altogether but these were plantations that first of all had to be planted they had to be finished in order to get the grant and then to think that those poor people are into these companies or whatever they all have to pay their way there's no one here they're giving giving giving the landowners funding while they're held up who's going to do that this government have money to pay for home help and I think eventually people delight to stay stay in their home as long as possible so and you do I suppose you don't know Deputy Barrett that if you had a place planted and you got a ferry license and cut it down you can't reclaim the land you know you can't reclaim the land and try to make it to make it out of it because if we wanted it the only way you can do that is is to plant another place of equal size then rules are there Deputy Barrett you need have no fear in the world about that Deputy I just just just I'm going to let you continue but it's on the amendment in relation to the timeframe for the for the committee to give their decision that's what we're speaking to now we're not just it's for everybody we're not at second stage we're at committee stage and so just be relevant to the amendment I will but I'm just addressing what the hero before me came out with and and and and I want to educate him so that he won't delay us any further with any other Ramesh because these are the these are the facts of it and and and and and and and and and and and and I understand that and and and and the people and and and and here we and all the stage that there's There's haulers, there's harvesters, there's forwarders, and there's sawmills, practically in a standstill, and if we don't act now, and listen to these amendments that are being put forward, and I'm appealing to the Minister to listen to what we're saying here, because it is relevant, and it is proper and right, we're doing nothing wrong, we wouldn't be going to this trouble to help these people with these amendments if we weren't meaning well, and we do mean well, and Deputy Fitzmaurice and ourselves in the rural independent group, we mean well, and we want this bill to go through, and we want the bill to make sense, and that will have substance, and that will mean something to the people that are looking for the failing license. Thank you very much, let's move forward.
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