Oireachtas committee meetings on RTÉ were not the only Kildare Street gatherings that struggled to get clear answers of late.

On Wednesday last (5 July) a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine was effectively stonewalled when seeking information on the new Forestry Programme.

Committee chair Deputy Jackie Cahill and Senator Victor Boyhan claimed “they were none the wiser” after hearing an update from Department of Agriculture officials on the proposed programme which has gone to Brussels for clearance.

Deputy Cahill opted to reconvene the committee hearing and called for Minister for State Pippa Hackett to attend the next gathering.

Following this latest own goal from the Department’s forestry service, the private forestry body SEEFA [Social, Economic, Environmental Forestry Association] accused Minister Hackett of “negligence and a dereliction of duty” and called for her to resign.

Oireachtas committees are clearly dangerous places these days.

Hackett in the firing line after Oireachtas committee debacle

The private forestry body, SEEFA, called for Minister for State Pippa Hackett to resign after senior Forestry Service officials stonewalled the Oireachtas Agriculture Committee.