Concerns have been raised about the long term prospects of the Irish timber sector due to what has been called "an all time low in tree planting".
Industry experts blame reduced afforestation levels on bureaucracy and say businesses will go into decline for lack of wood in the future.
Earlier today members of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee visited a sawmill in Ballygar in east Galway.
The Murray Timber Group in Hermitage, Ballygar is a long established family business employing 180 people directly on site and 250 people indirectly. In recent years the company has invested €30 million to build on its growing Irish and UK market.
Production of timber products is set to double over the next ten years as the high levels of afforestation in the 1980's and 1990's are now producing mature forests.
But plant owners say the situation will reverse in the future because tree planting is at an all time low.
They say excessive bureaucracy and a delay in the introduction of a new forestry programme is undermining the whole sector.
John Murray of Murray Timber Group said: "It is disappointing to see the afforestation figures dropping from the highs of 20,000 hectares per annum in the 1990s to the lows of 2,000 hectares presently.
"That's just a quarter of the Government's 8,000 hectare annual target. Timber is the only structural product used in a building that isn't mined from the ground and Irish timber is fully renewable as it comes from new growth forests.
"We need to be planting the right kind of trees in sufficient numbers and we can't have it being stymied by bureaucracy."
Members of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee were given a tour of the sawmill and heard concerns firsthand.
Currently there are some 12,000 people working in the industry in rural Ireland which is estimated to generate over €2 billion for the economy.
Forest Industries Ireland says the sector has huge house building potential. It is estimated the growing output from Irish forests would see enough timber produced for 1.4 million homes by 2040. There are calls now for an urgent overhaul of tree planting to combat climate change, build houses, and sustain the sector long term.
Mark McAuley, Director of Forest Industries Ireland said: "All of us are concerned that the problems in forestry and the low levels of afforestation will threaten the future of a great wood products industry that we have built up in Ireland.
"We must get the bureaucracy of forestry sorted out to make it more attractive to farmers and get more trees in the ground.
"There is a growing demand for timber in Irish construction as the environmental credentials of wood for building is increasingly recognised.
"A typical timber frame home contains around seven cubic metres of wood and an average timber frame home built saves about 12 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
"Using timber frame as the preferred construction method will save millions of tonnes of carbon emissions. If we look at the demand for 33,000 homes per annum in the Government's 'Housing for All’, ten years of building those as timber frame would save millions of tonnes of CO2 compared to masonry construction."
Jackie Cahill, Chairman of the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee says he is extremely worried about the low levels of afforestation.
"We are not going to get anywhere near the Government target of 8,000 hectares and this has implications for climate change and for people looking for timber for construction in the long term.
"People will wonder what the hell we were doing. Farmers' confidence has been decimated too and we have to restore that trust and get back up and running."
Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway, Michael Fitzmaurice says that we were facing into the worst year for tree planting and that Ireland will face penalties in decades to come.
"We need to streamline the planning process and planting system and stop listening to bureaucrats in Europe who are stalling everything.
"We are waiting for Europe to decide at the moment whether we're even going to be allowed use the €1.3 billion that was announced a year ago to do more planting.
"There is no clear pathway for farmers in rural Ireland. They have lost confidence in the whole forestry industry. And this is at a time when a Green minister is in charge. There's something really wrong with the whole system."
