I also wish to point out that 2,000 ha of land was planted last year – it should have been 8,000 ha. There is over a two-year delay in getting planting permits due to a backlog in the felling licences being issued. Farm forestry nationally has collapsed. Recently, Deputy Cahill, who is an excellent Chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, told members that the Government would be lucky if it hits 20% of its own planting targets. This is absolutely ironic, as the Green tail is shaking the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael dog to death.

The Deputy means "wagging".

Between all of them, they are doing nothing positive for the forestry sector.

I am delighted that the Taoiseach thinks it is funny. The foresters and the people who want to plant land in Ireland do not think it is one bit funny. They think the Taoiseach and the Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Senator Hackett, are failures. They think they have done nothing positive for their sector, and they actually have not.

We are only two years in government. We inherited a massive backlog. Why? Be honest and tell the truth now and again and stop the political nonsense. There were individuals out in society that objected to every planning application on forestry, including felling, planting and harvesting. The Deputy knows that as well as I know that. He should not be trying to blame Government or politicians or scapegoating the Minister of State at the Department, which is a wrong thing to do. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, is two years in office. Suddenly, certain people politically want to scapegoat her wrongly. We all know what happened.

We are in a democratic society and people can challenge every single application in the courts. What we did was we changed the legislation and the backlog has eased considerably. The Deputy is a reasonable man and should have acknowledged that the backlog has eased very significantly because of the measures we have taken. I acknowledge, that said, we have an awful lot more to do to get the planting up to where we want to get it to. However, one has to work with the basis one came in with. This Government is determined to do everything we can to increase afforestation dramatically and planting properly in terms of native tree woodlands and so on. We need more of that. However, people were literally objecting right, left and centre to every application for planting and that was wrong too.

The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, was the biggest one.