I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Hackett. I wish to convey to her on my own behalf and on behalf of the House our deepest sympathies to her on the very sad passing of her father. We send our deepest sympathies and hope she and her family are doing the best they can in these difficult times.
Nithe i dtosach suíonna - Commencement Matters
Forestry Sector
I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter. I thank the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, for agreeing to take this Commencement matter. She is, after all, the lead Minister in relation to forestry and I acknowledge that. The European Commission has now approved under the EU state aid rules Ireland’s new forestry programme. We are now at the start, albeit somewhat delayed. We had much debate and engagement. I certainly had a great deal of engagement on the matter with the Department and the Minister. We are where we are. We now have an ambitious programme of €1.3 billion up and running. It will run from 2023 to 2027. Targets are a key aspect of the programme. The target of the scheme is to reach 18% forestry cover in Ireland by the end of 2027. I do not know how that will be achieved. Let us live in hope. The trajectory of the targets is going in that direction. It is ambitious and there is much to do. I am of the view that it is time we had a national forestry authority to help to restore the confidence of farmers, foresters and forestry growers in the industry. As Members know, currently we have Coillte, which despite what some people might think, is not the national forestry authority of Ireland. We have the Department’s own forestry section within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Both of these are doing exceptionally good work. We also have the private sector. The breakdown is around 48% and 52% between both private and public. That is quite high. I was surprised that the public sector forestry is as high as it is. The Social Economic Environmental Forestry Association, SEEFA, is one of the largest forestry groups in Ireland. SEEFA has expressed frustration continuously with the Department for its refusal to meet and engage with it. Many Senators and Deputies will have received correspondence yesterday, 27 September, setting out its concerns and its frustration. I am not getting into dialogue about the ins and outs of the Department because I am not privy to all the facts. It would not be appropriate. Suffice to say that SEEFA has expressed absolute frustration. On numerous occasions I have appealed to the Minister at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to meet SEEFA. I would do so again. As I said, Coillte and the forestry section in the Department do exceptional and important work, which needs to continue. However, I believe that the national forestry authority for which I am advocating, and for which many others before me have advocated, would drive the industry forward, would listen to the State and the private sectors together and would provide an equal pitch for both. The Taoiseach has said about forestry that he sees a synergy, a co-operation and a partnership with the private sector. I have no issues with the private sector. We want trees planted in the right places, as the Minister of State constantly says. Such an authority could for example take regulatory responsibilities, deal with licences and related planning and planting matters, and ensure a more fair and open competition and regulation sector and allow transparency right across the sector. If we have to be successful, and I know the Minister of State buys into this, we need to work equally – “equally” being the operative word here – with both the public and the private sector. We need to enter into a new spirit of partnership and co-operation with all people, be it small forestry people, farmers, foresters, nursery growers, arboriculturists that is, the whole array of people who interplay in this industry. I call for serious consideration to be given to an independent State forestry board.
I thank Senator Boyhan and call the Minister of State, Senator Hackett.
Before I start, I thank the Cathaoirleach on behalf of the House for expressing sympathies on the passing of my Dad, Lucien Powers. Both he and my Mum, Jeannie, sat very proudly in the Visitors' Gallery here when I gave my maiden speech in this wonderful Chamber, in November 2019. That is a happy memory for us all.
Turning now to the Commencement matter at hand, I thank Senator Boyhan for bringing forward this matter and for his continued interest in the forestry sector. As he is aware, the Government has committed €1.3 billion to the new forestry programme, which is the biggest and best-funded forestry programme ever introduced by any Government to date. The forestry programme is by far the most environmentally ambitious to date. It will deliver public good for the benefit of all and will contribute to our key environmental objectives of climate change, biodiversity and water quality. Collaboration has been central to the development of this new programme. It is the result of comprehensive engagement and public consultation and emanates from the document, the Shared National Vision for Trees, Woods and Forests in Ireland until 2050, which was published last year.
Inputs were sought from a broad range of stakeholders during this consultation process, which included a public attitude survey, an online survey, a citizens' assembly-style deliberative dialogue, bilateral engagement with more than 30 separate stakeholder groups and engagement with community groups through Foróige and Irish Rural Link. A stakeholder working group that included representatives from the public and private forestry sectors helped develop this new vision and the new forestry strategy. It is through this coalition that we now have a renewed blueprint for the delivery of our shared forestry objectives.
The forestry programme is the main implementation vehicle for the forestry strategy in the immediate to short term and was launched recently, on 6 September. It is essential that ongoing stakeholder engagement and communications structures are continued to ensure a successful outcome for the forestry programme. I intend to establish a new governance framework to facilitate this. A new set of deliverables will be established to implement the forestry programme and a new forestry programme consultative committee will provide for stakeholder engagement and continuity. This committee will be formed in the near future and will include representation from a broad range of relevant stakeholders. Private and public forestry sector representatives will be prominent among these and are recognised as vital for buy-in and uptake of the new programme.
The new programme is different from what we have seen previously. It has 12 diverse forest types, providing ample choice for farmers and other landowners to plant according to their needs. It is designed especially to encourage more farmers to get involved in farm forestry. That is why forestry premiums have been increased by between 46% and 66% and farmers will receive 20 years of premium payments, compared with 15 years of premium payments for non-farmers. Premium payments now range from between €746 and €1,142 per year per hectare, tax free. There is provision for the involvement of public bodies too. We have a dedicated forest creation on public land scheme and the NeighbourWood scheme to help communities create local forests for the enjoyment of the public.
A targeted communications campaign to promote the programme is already under way. There was a strong emphasis on forestry at the Department's stand at the National Ploughing Championships and advertisements have been placed in newspapers. Radio and social media promotion will commence next week and Teagasc will shortly commence a series of information sessions throughout the country for all interested parties. We have also opened a call for proposals for forestry promotion projects, with a special focus on promoting schemes under the new forestry programme. We are also conducting regional training sessions for registered foresters to explain the new requirements.
This forestry programme has the potential to deliver lasting benefits for climate change, biodiversity, wood production, economic development and quality of life, and we fully recognise it will need a collaborative effort throughout society to reach our aims. It is our intention to ensure full and active engagement with relevant stakeholders. I ask those who are interested in the future of forestry in Ireland to lend their support to the new programme.
I thank the Minister of State for all the positives, with which I have no difficulty, but the Commencement matter was intended to ask her to establish a national forestry authority. There was no mention of such an authority in the response, which is what the Commencement matter focused on. It was a simple question of a few lines. Is the Minister of State supportive of the principle of looking at establishing a national forestry authority? Again, I acknowledge the positivity of all the key points she made and I acknowledge Teagasc, which yesterday published its Forestry Programme 2023-2027 information meetings, which will start on 10 October and run to 19 October, throughout the country. Clearly, the agency is active on the ground and a number of these workshops will be held throughout our community. I intend to go to some of them and I hope other Senators will too, because they are very important.
This is a positive start and I want to start being positive. I do not want to be negative all the time. The Minister of State should believe me when I say I am committed to this forestry sector. Will the Minister of State outline whether there is even remote support for the establishment of a national forestry authority?
I fully acknowledge the Senator's positivity and commitment to the sector and welcome the fact he plans to attend some of the workshops. We see the promotion of forestry as something that enough people are already involved in. In the case of the forestry promotion project, as I indicated, a lot of private sector individuals are getting involved, which is very good given it is diverse, it spans the country and it allows people to see the benefits of forestry across the board, not least at a societal level. Teagasc is actively promoting forestry and there are a number of aspects to forestry promotion. Currently, the model works well and people can contact their Teagasc adviser to get direct advice on a one-to-one basis, and there is also a wider promotional campaign in the Department that will run forestry promotion projects throughout the country. At this time, therefore, I believe we are covering the promotion of forestry proactively. We have a new programme on which to deliver and I am excited about the future of that.
Healthcare Policy
I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon.
Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I am grateful to the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber to deal with this issue. I used the term "breastfeeding" in my Commencement matter submission but I am really talking about child-feeding and child-changing facilities. As a new parent, I am acutely aware of this issue, and the Minister of State will also be familiar with the difficulties parents can sometimes face when they are out and about, whether in busy shops or even on the road, in finding a place where they can change or feed a child in a quiet environment. As possible as it is to sit in the main concourse of a train station or an airport and feed a child, that is not always conducive. Especially as children get older and more easily distracted, it can be more and more difficult to feed them.
I am asking for State sponsorship and encouragement for parents to help them in the difficult role they have daily to deal with those issues. This could be done by the giving of a grant or support to small businesses in particular to provide facilities for breastfeeding, bottle feeding, changing or whatever it might be. A lot of large corporations and businesses provide these facilities as a matter of course; that is welcome and they are to be congratulated for that. As we perform badly in Ireland in respect of breastfeeding and feeding babies with breast milk, we should be encouraging this.
For a small café, shop, motorway service station or whatever it might be, there is so much regulation. I am not criticising that but there are many hoops through which people need to jump to satisfy the regulatory requirements, and it is really difficult for small businesses to provide that. For a food business, for example, there are huge food safety requirements, which are appropriate but they leave little left over, whether space wise or money wise, to provide the facilities parents might need. Particularly in the case of SMEs, the Government should be able to step in to provide support to those businesses to encourage them to provide safe, secure, comfortable and clean facilities for changing and feeding children.
This is a minimum requirement as we encourage people to have children, and we know that even though our population is growing, we need growth in the population to pay for pensions, if nothing else, and to be part of the workforce at a time when there is virtually 100% employment. We need to facilitate the parents of young children and make facilities available to them in whatever way we can, but that is a significant challenge for small enterprises and businesses with small premises. I am not talking about giving out money wholesale to businesses to do this but rather a support grant. As I know from my wife, who is breastfeeding at the moment, businesses will often say the issue is on their list and that they would like to provide the facility. They say they cannot do it at the moment, however, because of such and such a difficulty, whether a planning problem or something else, but there is always going to be a money problem as well.
The more we can do to help small food businesses such as cafes and small shops in town and village centres make these facilities available, the better. We can ensure a parent who is out shopping with their child, be it a man or a woman, can have a space that is quiet, secure and clean and the facilities they need are available. It is simply a matter of an armchair, a sink to clean, a bin for rubbish and a changing table. Often these things are co-located with accessible toilets and things like that, which is fine if they are clean, but it is more difficult for small businesses to provide those facilities. I am asking the Department of Health in particular, as I think it has responsibility for this area, to consider putting in place a grant that will support those businesses and by extension those parents.
I thank the Senator for raising this important issue and pass on the apologies of the Minister for Health, who could not be here to take this Commencement matter. The response I have been given focused on the title, which was around breastfeeding facilities specifically, but I take on board the Senator's point on the importance of ensuring we have those facilities for men or women who are feeding children, baby changing facilities, and the rest.
Encouraging mothers to breastfeed is a priority for both the Department of Health and the HSE. National health policy, including the Healthy Ireland framework, Healthy Ireland strategic action plan, national maternity strategy, the obesity policy and action plan and the national cancer strategy, emphasises the importance of supporting mothers who breastfeed, as well as taking action to increase breastfeeding rates in Ireland. The HSE's Breastfeeding in a Healthy Ireland action plan is the framework for progressing supports for breastfeeding in Ireland. The Department of Health works closely with the HSE national breastfeeding co-ordinator, who has responsibility for the implementation of the health service breastfeeding action plan 2016-2021, which has been extended to 2025.
A key action of the HSE breastfeeding action plan is to communicate the importance of breastfeeding through social media, marketing, support and advocacy. Credible online breastfeeding information and support is available through the breastfeeding.ie website and the HSE's mychild.ie website. The mychild.ie site provides information to parents-to-be, and parents of young children. The website is part of a suite of information supports provided both directly by practitioners and online. This website covers pregnancy, labour and birth, and babies and toddlers. In the past four years, the HSE has invested in a promotional campaign for parents aged 25 to 45 on mychild.ie and one of the most popular topics, namely, breastfeeding, features strongly in this ongoing campaign. The HSE also runs MyChild social media channels on Facebook and Instagram, where breastfeeding topics are regularly featured. Once a year the HSE runs the National Breastfeeding Week from 1 to 7 October.
Despite the many initiatives to promote breastfeeding and support mothers, breastfeeding rates in Ireland remain lower than in many other countries. Many mothers still feel breastfeeding is not the norm. Mothers who breastfeed or who have tried breastfeeding can experience a range of challenges, both physical and societal. They have experienced difficulty with finding suitable places to breastfeed while out and about, as the Senator has outlined, or have been made to feel uncomfortable while breastfeeding in public. A broader societal change is needed to promote a more positive culture around breastfeeding and to ensure breastfeeding is enabled and supported in all settings, including in public spaces and in the workplace. Peer support groups and the establishment of the We're Breastfeeding Friendly initiative are very welcome supports promoted by the Healthy Ireland framework to encourage new mothers to feel comfortable breastfeeding their infants on demand. Some places may offer a private area for breastfeeding mothers, but it is parental choice should they decide to use it. It is not a requirement that premises be adapted in any way to support breastfeeding mothers under the We're Breastfeeding Friendly initiative. Any business, community group or organisation that has premises open to the general public is eligible to join this initiative. More information can be found on that at healthy.limerick@limerick.ie.
Paid maternity benefit of 26 weeks is available for those with enough PRSI contributions and a further 16 weeks of unpaid leave can also be availed of. If a parent returns to work and continues to breastfeed their baby, they are entitled to take time off work each day to breastfeed under section 9 of the Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004. This applies to all women or birthing parents in employment who have given birth within the previous two years, which is 104 weeks. To conclude, in consultation with an employer, a breastfeeding parent is entitled breastfeed in the workplace or express breast milk, where suitable facilities are available in the workplace, or to have their working hours reduced without loss of pay to facilitate breastfeeding where suitable facilities are not available. However, it is important to note employers do not have to provide facilities in the workplace to facilitate breastfeeding if providing such facilities would give rise to considerable costs. There are, therefore, no plans at present to provide funding to SMEs to make high quality breastfeeding facilities available.
I thank the Minister of State. I acknowledge that, as he said, next week is National Breastfeeding Week. We have lower rates and I recognise programmes are in place to encourage it. My wife's experience and mine is that breastfeeding is very much encouraged in our local area. We live in Dún Laoghaire and businesses in that area want to provide facilities for people who are breastfeeding or feeding children. As I said, this is not just restricted to women as it about parents of every type and we know families take many different shapes and forms now. However, I am disappointed by the response because I am not advocating requiring businesses to do this. I am saying businesses want to do it and parents want the facilities, but the difficulty is the disconnect, especially for small businesses that do not have the resources to do it or that face other difficulties. In advance of National Breastfeeding Week, and of the budget, and in acknowledgement not of the huge plans put in place by the Department, but of the fact we have lower breastfeeding rates and greater difficulties then other European countries, is now not the time to put in place that grant? It is a reasonable thing to ask for. It is not too much. It is a facility that could be provided for parent of all types the length and breadth of the country, if the Department wished to do it.
I again thank the Senator. He articulated the impediment and the societal challenges really well. I take his points of view on board and will bring them back to the Minister. We know the importance of ensuring breastfeeding mothers can breastfeed freely and comfortably in the workplace and the wider community. Research indicates breastfeeding gives a child an optimum start in life. Increasing our breastfeeding rates will contribute to the improvement in child and maternal health and also contribute to the reduction of childhood obesity and chronic diseases. The Senator's question has highlighted the need for broader societal change to promote a more positive culture around breastfeeding in the workplace and wider community. The HSE plan out to 2025 involves working closely with the Department of Health to deliver the five-point action plan. The vision of Healthy Ireland is that everyone can enjoy physical and mental health and well-being to their full potential. The Government remains committed to improving breastfeeding rates and moving forward on normalising breastfeeding within the community and workplace. Promoting breastfeeding as part of healthy lifestyle choices will remain a priority under new policy development over the coming years. I will be sure to relay the points the Senator raised to the Minister for Health.
Wastewater Treatment
The Minister of State is welcome to the House. This is an issue that affects many rural communities, but especially those in my county of Clare. There has been underinvestment in wastewater facilities there for decades under all Governments. There are many pockets of County Clare where development is precluded simply because there is not proper wastewater infrastructure. We are in a situation where in Broadford village the planning regulator altered the Clare county development plan and dezoned land because the infrastructure is not there. This scheme is a pilot proposed by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heri back in 2020. Oireachtas Members from County Clare met him in the Custom House in October or November 2020. The Minister suggested he was going to look at devising a pilot scheme. I think the figure mentioned was €50 million. Local authorities were asked to make submissions a long time ago, that is, nearly a year and a half ago, on suitable projects. Clare County Council submitted two, one being for Broadford and the other for Cooraclare. It could have submitted 22, but it submitted two. I raised this as a Commencement matter last December and was told the decision was imminent and would be made in quarter 1 in 2023. By decision, I mean the announcement of which schemes were going to be successful so the councils could proceed to tender, etc.
I raised it again in March because quarter 1 was over, and I was told that it would happen before the summer. I raised it again in July but, again, nothing happened. I am now raising it again at almost the end of September. When are we going to get an announcement on this pilot scheme? The children's hospital will be built and will be up and running and we will still be waiting to see if Broadford and Cooraclare in County Clare will get their sewerage schemes. The problem is that people in those villages who have money are ready and willing to build housing and to develop commercial units and put infrastructure into the villages. We are all about supporting rural Ireland and encouraging people to relocate there, yet this scheme has been talked about, discussed, debated and promised for nearly three years. At this stage I want answers as to when exactly we are going to have an announcement on the schemes. I am fully aware that it is not the Department of the Minister of State but I sincerely hope the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has given him the answer.
I thank Senator Conway for raising this important issue. I know the impact and the importance of this type of critical investment in wastewater treatment for the very reasons he has outlined that are important to his communities in Clare relating to the future sustainable development and growth of towns and villages. I am responding on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who unfortunately is not able to be here today.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage builds its water services strategic policy and infrastructure improvement delivery programmes around Project Ireland 2040, the water services policy statement and the river basin management plan.
The Department's multi-annual rural water programme, using Exchequer funding, is delivering improvements to water services, including wastewater, in areas of rural Ireland without public water services. The strategic objective of the multi-annual programme, through its various funding measures, is to improve the quality, reliability and efficiency of water services for rural dwellers where public water services are not available.
In April 2022, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, launched a new scheme for the wastewater collection and treatment needs of villages and settlements without access to public wastewater services. An allocation of €50 million has been committed under the national development plan to fund the scheme.
The principal aim of the scheme is to provide an opportunity for local authorities to take an innovative approach to address environmental and public health issues in locations of need, across the country, on a prioritised basis. The first round of funding is intended to follow a demonstration project model approach that will inform the development of longer-term strategies for the future funding needs of villages and settlements where public water services are not available.
All rural local authorities were asked to submit suitable applications for funding for two priority locations, with the deadline being 15 September 2022, as outlined by Senator Conway. An independent expert panel was tasked with critically evaluating each of the applications received and making recommendations to the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, for funding. The panel is independently chaired and membership includes the Environmental Protection Agency and Uisce Éireann. In addition to providing an expert perspective, the panel brings independence, openness and transparency to the bids evaluation process.
I am told that the panel has evaluated all aspects of applications received and, based on a report from the panel, a decision on funding will be made by the Minister shortly. Local authorities will then be notified of the outcome of their applications. Unfortunately, I am not able to give Senator Conway a specific timeline, but the panel has evaluated all aspects of applications received and its report will form the basis of the Minister's decision on funding. We are told it will happen shortly.
I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, very much. I know he is only delivering the message on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien. Reading between the lines, it is quite worrying because the expert panel that was appointed, which has evaluated all of the projects, could turn around and recommend that none of the projects should receive funding. What will happen then? Is the Minister going to override the decision and come up with his own justification for providing the funding?
The situation is very serious. I hope the projects go ahead. I have every faith that the Minister wants them to happen. Unfortunately, the people of Broadford and Cooraclare have had a lot of false dawns at this stage. I sincerely hope the dawn is not going to turn into dusk and that instead we see sunshine because the people who are ready to build houses in those communities are not going to hang around for ever. I appreciate the reply. I do not think there is much the Minister of State can add to it. I sincerely hope I am not raising this again in six months' time. If the evaluation and decision have been made by the evaluation committee, there is no reason it cannot be published.
I again thank Senator Conway. To allay the concern he raises that the expert panel could perhaps say that nowhere needs the scheme, we all know of places all over Ireland - I have them in my constituency of Kildare - that need this level of investment. I take heart from the line in the original response which talks about taking a demonstration project model approach. I do not think there is any risk of the expert panel not making a recommendation on areas. It will be about prioritisation based on set criteria but ultimately the project model will be able to deliver. Not only will the selected projects that are chosen in the first phase be very important for those communities but lessons will be learnt on how they are delivered. The rural water programme provides funding to support and improve the water services in areas of rural Ireland where public water services are not available. This is a critical role for us to get right in terms of our water quality, people's quality of life and future balanced regional development around the country. I have no doubt the decision will be made shortly in the best interests of everyone involved.