Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Coillte Annual Report 2018: Discussion

Photo of Marcella Corcoran KennedyMarcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending this afternoon. I extend a special word of congratulations to the new CEO, Ms Hurley. I commend Coillte on its Science Week initiative, which involved the provision of saplings to schools, local community development groups and Tidy Towns committees. Anyone I heard about was delighted with the initiative. I commend Coillte on the introduction of such a great initiative at a time when we are all talking about climate change. The local climate action committees that are in place are engaging with and talking about these issues.

I would like to ask about a joint Coillte-Bord na Móna initiative that has been announced. As I am from County Offaly, I am very keen to hear about the plan to transform Bord na Móna lands into native woodlands. This matter has been the subject of a great deal of consideration at the Joint Committee on Climate Action. We have debated whether these lands should be wetted first and species like alder should be planted subsequently. Has Coillte looked into paludiculture? I would be very interested to hear what the witnesses have to say about this. There was a little negativity when this initiative was announced. Those of us who thought it was a good idea suddenly realised that the use of boglands to grow trees was not quite as simple as we thought it was.

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