Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

The contribution to climate change mitigation factored into our accounting between now and 2030 is about trees in the ground now. The planting we are doing between now and 2030 will be of assistance to us after 2030. There is a programme for Government target of 8,000 ha. It is not for me to resile from that. We have to be ambitious about this. If the Chairman is asking if we could plant more than that, it would be foolish of me to say that we can in circumstances where we are struggling to meet our existing targets. Our ambition is to develop a system that is attractive enough for farmers and others to want to plant forestry. As I said, we have to fix this licensing issue.

Forestry is a potentially tremendous source of income for landowners and farmers, including livestock farmers. A cultural shift is required and we should not view forestry as an alternative to livestock reduction. It can comfortably co-exist with livestock production and provide a better living for farmers. I accept that we are nowhere near reaching those targets yet and that the difficulty with licensing has been a significant factor in that.