May I express my gratitude for allowing me to raise this very important matter on the Adjournment? This debate relates to the threatened job loss of 40 people employed in the sawmilling industry in Mountrath. Those jobs are being put at risk because of the policies being pursued by the Department of Fisheries and Forestry in relation to the tendering system at present in operation under which sawmills purchase their raw materials.
I do not have to remind the House of the importance of the sawmilling industry to the economy. Many hundreds of workers are employed in this industry and there are thousands employed directly and indirectly in the forestry industry. It is extremely important that this House and the Minister responsible for forestry immediately examine the situation in which this industry find itself. This State industry is supplied with raw material from State forests. Unless the Minister faces up to his responsibility, unless he reorganises the system in the Department which sell timber to the sawmills and make this industry competitive, thousands of jobs will be lost.
This is the only industry in Mountrath giving employment to approximately 40 workers. If these workers lose their jobs there is no other industry to provide alternative employment. These people have been on short time for six weeks and during that period the Minister had an opportunity to try to reorganise and rationalise the system for making timber available to our sawmills. It would be better for the Minister to face this task immediately than for the Department of Social Welfare to have to pay social welfare to these 40 workers.
As was explained at a public meeting last Friday night, these people want to work. They do not want to go on the dole. Mountrath sawmills have one of the finest industrial relations records in the country. There was never a strike in that industry. It is pathetic that that industry is being forced to close its doors because of the system operated by the Department. There is an immediate need for the Minister and the Government to face up to their obvious responsibilities in this area. The time has come when we must recognise that there is a great potential for the development of forestry as a basic national industry not only from the point of view of job creation but to ensure that in the long term we make adequate provision for supplying our own timber needs.
One of the great problems facing the sawmilling industry at present arises from the deteriorating and scaling down of the construction industry. Fianna Fáil always recognised the value of that industry for the purpose of a job creation. If you talk to any manager of a sawmill, he will tell you that over the past two years in particular the demand for timber products has seriously declined. It is very easy to see why this happened, because the level of house building is at an all time low.
It is sad to say that what is happening in Mountrath will happen in every sawmill in the country unless immediate action is taken. Mountrath, one of the most efficient sawmills in the country, has been forced to take this action. We were told that an opportunity would be provided for the people who manage the sale of timber from our forests to face up to their responsibilities. All the people in this industry are asking is that they be given the same opportunities that sawmills in Northern Ireland and foreign industries are being given. That is not an unreasonable request from an old established industry. It is not an unfair request to ask this Government to recognise the difficulties in which this industry finds itself.
The time has come to have another look at the situation in relation to forestry development. For far too long the heavy hand of the Civil Service has inhibited and restricted the development of forestry. It has been governed at Civil Service level by people who are not aware of the problems on the ground. The sooner we face up to that reality, the better for the country and for the industry generally. There is no doubt that this most important industry can be developed as one of our greatest, because it is based on one of our natural resources.
We have always claimed agriculture to be one of our greatest natural resources and there can be no arguing that forestry could also be. There is no area in which more jobs could be productively created than in the general area of forestry. Any man or boy employed in planting a tree or harvesting timber from our forests is engaged in gainful and productive employment. It amazes me that this Government and this Minister have decided to reduce the Estimate for forestry development, to scale down the overall capacity of our forests for employment. They are doing so at a time of the highest unemployment levels ever recorded in the history of the State. If the Government were even remotely interested in creating productive employment — and they tend to talk about productive job creation — surely this is the obvious area in which to engage more people in planting our wasteland and in harvesting, preserving and maintaining our forests.
Foresters will tell you that at present our young forests are choked and overgrown because of insufficient manpower to keep them clean, yet the Department of Social Welfare on the one hand are handing out millions of pounds to keep people on the dole and at the same time there is a productive Government Department waiting with hands outstretched to take on additional workers. Why can two Government Departments not put their heads together realistically, with a view to transferring resources from an unproductive area, the Department of Social Welfare, into the productive job creation area, the Department of Forestry? It is a shame on the Department and the Minister for Forestry that this area is not being productively developed in the national interest at present.
As a follow-up, the same Department are going to allow the sawmills throughout the length and breadth of the country to close down because they are making it impossible for these to purchase the trees planted as an investment by the people. These trees should now be made available at a competitive price to people who are giving employment and these are undoubtedly the people involved in sawmilling.
I make a final appeal to the Minister to take immediate steps to keep Mountrath Sawmills open — just one example of the number of sawmills threatened with closure in the immediate months ahead, unless we face up to reality. I promised Deputy Flanagan the opportunity of saying a few words in this debate because he was present with me at the recent meeting in Mountrath and I do not want to deny him that opportunity.
