I am a small farmer, I own forestry land and I have worked for many years in the forestry services. I have raised with the current and past Governments the need for carbon credits to be given to farmers and others involved in forestry. As the Taoiseach will be aware, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, denied many amendments by the Rural Independent Group and others, including those seeking carbon credits, but I believe that in recent days he has had a conversion. This is the second time during Leaders' Questions that the Business Post is to be complimented. I compliment it for excellent reporting over the weekend on the Minister's change of heart. He now recognises, rightly so, that farmers and forestry owners should have a system of carbon credits put in place. As the Taoiseach knows, I am very fair to everybody. I thank Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Deputies and others, including those of no party, who have lobbied the Minister and tried to persuade him to understand and realise this is the right thing to do. I hate talking about somebody when he is not present but when the Minister is not here, I cannot help it. He said recently that young people should be supported in rural communities and that he wants them to live in them. The funny thing about it is that, at the same time, he does not want them to get planning permission to live in them. He does not want to build roads, even though he is the Minister responsible for roads. He wants briars out to the middle of the road in the countryside and cyclists avoiding potholes and trying to prevent the eyes from being taken out of their heads. At the same time, forestry has been neglected. There has been zero movement on the ash dieback scheme. Nothing has improved or changed. There is a lack of support for replanting after storm and frost damage. There have been no reconstruction grants. We have been crying out for those for a long time and have been told they are on their way but so is Christmas.

Is the Taoiseach aware that there are applications for more than 9,000 ha, or 22,239 acres, sitting in the forest service awaiting approval? That means 1,300 people are waiting for permission to plant trees, some for more than three years. Can the Taoiseach answer one simple question? Why is the forest service only capable of processing fewer than ten afforestation scheme applications per week in June? Is it a policy of the Department to favour felling applications over afforestation licences? Could the Taoiseach tell us once and for all what exactly the Government and Department have against people who want to be involved in the forestry plantation business?

ESB costs are rising enormously, with a 9% increase coming very soon, and gas prices are on the increase, on top of the increases last year. At the same time, the Green Party and Government are telling us we should rely more on electricity.

I acknowledge the Deputy's positive comments in respect of the Committee Stage amendments to the climate Bill in the Seanad last week. It illustrates the Minister's openness and accommodation in taking on the views and ideas of others in the legislative process. He has a high regard for agriculture and rural Ireland. He has made that clear on an ongoing and consistent basis. The amendments the Deputy referenced strengthen the Bill and provide greater clarity on the use of sinks of greenhouse gases and carbon and that removals will be used to comply with our carbon budgets and sectoral emissions ceilings.

I fully take on board the Deputy's comments on forestry in the sense that it is a key sector. The Government has nothing against forestry; it wants to encourage more afforestation. We have inherited a long backlog because of issues to do with serial objections in the courts in respect of the licensing of felling and planting. As the Deputy knows, legislation was introduced late last year. That legislation is being implemented but I acknowledge a lot more work needs to be done. There are extra staff. Twenty-one full-time ecologists are now working in the Department on forestry licensing. Ten permanent forestry inspectors have joined the Department's team in addition to those who were on it. More staff have been recruited. Fifteen more administrative staff have been recruited. A project management expert, a business analyst and so on have been recruited to try to expand the capacity of the forestry team within the Department. The last three months of 2020 were the months with the highest licence output, with almost 900 new licences issued. Licences for felling, covering a volume of some 2 million tonnes, were issued in that time, amounting to 40% of the output for the year. We have seen some improvements in licensing output during the first half of 2021. June saw the most to date. There have been 1,758 licences issued so far this year. That represents a 19% increase over the figure for the same period last year. Then again, I accept that further gains are needed. We are moving in the right direction. The average output for the past seven weeks was 95 licences per week. Farmers are the big beneficiaries, receiving 75% of these.

Licence output is only one measure of performance. The more realistic metric is the volume of material licensed. This is what really matters to the sector. In that regard, felling volumes are 77% higher than at the same point last year. The area for afforestation is 19% higher. The licensing of road lengths is 121% higher. Coillte's 2021 felling programme is fully licensed. Coillte is working with the Department to ensure the availability of supply to the market.

Not to kill the Taoiseach's comeback, I will make just one statement: forestry planting has fallen 70% short of Government targets for 2020. That is a damning indictment of this Government.

I will continue by finishing what I was saying about electricity. The Green Party and the Government are telling us all to use more electricity. At the same time, the Taoiseach knows we ran dangerously close to outages. I would be very surprised if we do not have electricity outages this coming winter because of Government policy and inaction.

New slurry-spreading dates have been suggested, meaning less time to spread slurry. A ban on soiled-water spreading during the closed period is also being suggested. These are more of the crazy suggestions being made by the Government. What set has the Taoiseach got on people living in rural Ireland? What set has he got on farmers? What set has he got on people involved in forestry? Why is it that there seems to be so much disconnection between the Government and the people? I would love to be standing up here today praising the Taoiseach from the sky down to the ground but I cannot because of the actions he is taking.

Maybe the Deputy is watching the European Championship because he has shown such agility of foot across the pitch here in the past two minutes. It is highly impressive. He has covered everything from slurry spreading and forestry to carbon sinks-----

It is all rural Ireland.

I acknowledge it. I reassure the Deputy that the Government is for rural Ireland. We have invested unprecedented amounts in rural Ireland through a range of capital funding measures. The Deputy must surely acknowledge that. We have developed new initiatives in respect of forestry. The Government has, through both legislation and resources for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine-----

But has the Government delivered on that?

-----and we will deliver an increase in afforestation, certainly over the lifetime of the Government. We will do everything we possibly can to do that. We will continue to support all aspects of rural Ireland into the future.