Guillotining of legislation
Senator Boyhan voiced concern about the increasing use of guillotines on legislation and urged Members to discuss the issue constructively.
I wish to indicate the concern of myself, my colleagues and, indeed, everyone in the Opposition about the growing practice of guillotining legislation. I do not want to make an issue of it today other than to flag it. We need to all sit down constructively. There is an Acting Leader in the Seanad currently. After that situation is resolved, there would be no harm every now and again in us all sitting down outside of this Chamber to share our concerns. I wish to flag a concern on behalf of my group's Members and all other members of the Opposition. The growing practice of guillotining is not followed by all Ministers, which is interesting. I engage and have a fairly decent working relationship with nearly every Minister. I have conversations with them about this. I am not 100% sure who is making the decisions. Do all the different facets of our organisation know what is happening? I will park that there and flag it, but I do not want to make an issue of it today.
Could we organise a meeting on forestry with our new Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, Deputy Collins? There are some key asks in terms of objectives to flag to keep it focused. I will circulate this information to the Deputy Leader later, but they are that we would discuss the allowances for the agroforestry premium rates for our afforestation schemes, the native tree area scheme, the allowances for the deer fencing scheme, a review of the climate resilience restoration pilot, the forestry roads scheme, and forestry training and education. We have to have younger people coming up with the necessary skills. There could be an apprenticeship. It would not necessarily be an academic forestry degree, but people who are involved in the physical labour of forestry management, planting, sawmills, etc. It may not be this side of the summer, but I ask that this matter be put on the list as a future possible area of discussion and for statements.