Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is the challenge. If we look at some of the suggestions that have come from the European Commission such as Trees for Kids, and the plant a hectare initiative, we have approximately 120,000 farmers in the country. If half of them decided to plant a hectare each, that is 60,000 ha. That could be a broadleaf or a riparian margin along a river. We have initiatives such as woodlands for water, through which we work with the Department of the Communications Climate Action and Environment to seek to protect water through the water framework directive and to stop nutrient run-off by the use of nutrient management plans. There are a range of options.

Deputy Fitzmaurice mentioned shelter. Shelter last year would been shade from the sun, not shelter from the wind. It would have been as advantageous to have had a little bit of canopy on the border to stop animals getting parched and sunburned. I am not being facetious when I say that. We need to look at that, which is part of the mindset.

No more than the woodland environment fund is corporate social responsibility. Every farmer, almost without exception, has the ability to assign some of his or her land to trees, be it commercial spruce, which will have a 15% diverse species, or be it a broadleaf coppice area - smaller areas - and feel and understand that they are getting it established and getting a premium for nothing. For others it could be forest for fibre for bio-energy.

We have a range of options there and I encourage people to promote it in a positive way. We all need to work together on this, and at the end of the day it helps us achieve what we set out to do under those three pillars, which are efficiency, displacement and sequestration, from the agriculture sector. It is the biggest single incentive we can take. It does not have to be giant steps. It can be small steps for many people. I fully accept, because it has come across a number of times, the need for Coillte, Bord na Móna, and other State agencies to come on board and to be more engaged. I accept that the record and the experience that some people had with the contracts were not very good. There was a range of different contracts. Last year, in particular, the former CEO of Coillte made a concerted effort to ensure that every single farmer that was contracted, in whatever arrangement that was in place, was contacted to see if it could be resolved.

They were anxious from a PR perspective to become good partners again. We see Coillte as being a key player in the afforestation process to get to 8,000 ha. We see scope for the likes of Bord na Móna sites and other publicly owned lands to play their part in that regard. It will be an appropriate mix. It is about having the right tree in the right place on the right land. That is what it is all about. It is not a case of one size fits all. It cannot be. Carbon sequestration value is sometimes debated. It is said that broadleaves are better than conifers, but in fact it works out roughly the same because they are evergreen. Conifers store carbon for longer every year but their rotation is quicker. They lock in carbon. The technology now allows for the brash from clear-fell to be used when it is dried to generate heat and power in dairy processing and other plants. That leaves a cleaner and more efficient area to work on for replanting. There is a lot that we can do given the range of options. We can build a bioeconomy that could displace fossil fuels across a range of areas. We need to get everybody talking in a positive way and we all need to play our part. I am not lecturing anybody, but there is a range of options. When we think trees, we do not think one species in every situation. We look at what is best for a particular area and what would work. We can improve the water quality and the aesthetics, help the environment and increase the income and value for landowners. I understand that a group will come in after me to discuss their experience with ash dieback. We are determined to address that and to learn from the mistakes that were made to improve the scheme. We need positive experiences.

Deputy McConalogue asked about the volume of timber that will be produced. By 2035 it is estimated that the Roundwood harvest will be double what it was in 2015 and virtually all of the increase will come from the private estate. In 2018, for the first time ever, the volume of timber from the private estate exceeded 1 million cu. m. That is the beginning of it. I anticipate that as the volume increases, the experience of those who have been selling timber will be positive and they will realise that it is a lucrative and valuable enterprise and that they will be happy to reinstate their land into tree plantations. Timber will become a good news story. I hope word of mouth will have a positive effect and that we will hear from the people involved.

We have some way to go. Forestry can contribute much to the rural environment, to our climate change obligations and effort and to the economies of rural areas. There are 12,000 jobs in this. We export €330 million worth of timber, in particular to the UK, which is second only to China in terms of imports of timber. That is hard to believe. We export 70% of the timber products that we produce into the UK but that only accounts for 7% of the UK's imports. It is a very important market for us and there is significant potential. Currently, we import timber from Scotland to service that market, be it for pulp or sawlogs. Our processors are not guaranteed sufficient supply indigenously, but that will improve. I hope there is a positive forecast on the value of the timber that is in many holdings throughout the country at the moment. The average hectarage is probably less than 10 ha and there are between 21,000 and 22,000 private owners in the country. I do not know if I have addressed all the questions but members can come back to me if I did not respond to their questions.