Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Senator Lombard's question on Moorepark, there was a Teagasc village and there were afforestation people from the Department. Mr. Tom Dowling from Teagasc was definitely there advocating forestry. Every green certificate has a module on afforestation. Although I cannot say that definitively of the dairy knowledge transfer discussion groups, most knowledge transfers do have such a module. The ambition is that every discussion group would have such a module on considering forestry. It is part of the Teagasc plan. I expect that it will be implemented over the course of next year. A module on considering the planting of trees as part of the farm enterprise certainly forms part of the green certificate courses. It is not instead of or an either-or situation. This goes to a further point which Deputy Fitzmaurice made about shelter belts, to which I will return.

On Deputy McConalogue's question on diverse species, the afforestation programme of 2014 to 2020 sought to have a 30% broadleaf mix. One of the reasons it was difficult to get approval for any more than 20% of unenclosed land was that we were not hitting that target. We undertook a mid-term review in 2017 and published and enacted the recommendations of that in 2018, which included enhanced payments and incentives for broadleaves. We have seen in the course of that year the percentage of broadleaves go from approximately 22% up to 28%. The indications are that it is 28% and maybe closer to 30% this year. Those have been the incentives in every plantation. The monoculture plantation system does not exist anymore. We have native woodland schemes and a woodland environment fund which will involve the private sector, the corporates or whatever, as part of their corporate social responsibility. A one-off payment is made to landowners on top of the establishment grant and the premiums to plant a native woodland scheme. We have incentives in place in the form of a woodland improvement scheme and a continuous cover forestry scheme. There are a range of measures and are listed. I picked up the Teagasc forestry programme for 2014 to 2020 when I was down at Moorepark last week.