Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being here to listen to our comments. I welcome the plan. It is very significant to have a proposed investment of €1.3 billion in the Irish forestry sector. As we know, it is the largest ever investment by any Irish Government in tree planting. I wish to acknowledge that it is part of the national forestry programme. It is absolutely essential in helping us to reach the objectives of the strategy, which is designed to provide an overarching framework that identifies the actions needed to implement the changes required for Ireland's forests and reflects the ambition contained in the shared national vision for trees, woods and forests in Ireland until 2050. The programme is built around the principle of the right trees in the right places for the right reasons with the right management. That is absolutely crucial to deliver a more diverse forest and to meet multiple societal, economic, social and environmental objectives.

In County Kildare, we have wonderful forests that people walk in for leisure. Forests such as Donadea, Killinthomas, Moore Abbey and Mullaghreelan are very sociable and environmental places where people can go and, as they say, bathe in trees. They say now that it is more therapeutic than being beside water. Obviously, that part of it is really important. In terms of planting trees for commercial and climate purposes, I had a look at the Kildare County Council development plan. In the last survey that was done, 10,396 ha of the county was in forest, which accounts for just 6.1% of the overall land of the county. Given that the average around the country is 10.5%, we are falling well behind. Of that area, 50% is in public ownership and the remainder is in private ownership. My own family has land in forestry. It is good that a majority of native species - approximately 62% - are planted in the forest. There is huge scope to support and encourage landowners to use their land in this way. It goes without saying that forestry activities should be appropriate in terms of nature and scale so they are not visually intrusive on the landscape and do not cause damage to important habitats or the ecology of the area.

Senator Dooley touched on the importance of building supports and trust with the landowners. It is of concern that the average number of licences issued over the past six weeks was just 14. Average sites are 7 ha and only 50% of licences progressed to planting. We need a sizeable number of licences to achieve the targets we have. I would like the Minister of State to address this. It is critical that the forestry programme matches our climate ambitions with significantly increased financial supports to encourage farmers and landowners to consider forestry as a viable land use on their land. We have a lot of work to do to ensure everybody buys into this and gets what they expect. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, has said that unprecedented incentives will provide a valuable addition to farm income and help to meet national climate and biodiversity objectives. It is important that this funding guarantees continued payments to forest owners who have planted under the current scheme and are still in receipt of premiums, while offering new and improved financial supports to those who undertake planting and sustainable forest management under the new programme.

I wish the Minister of State, Senator Hackett; the Minister, Deputy McConalogue; and the Department well in terms of the roll-out and meeting the challenges that are there.