Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Forest Policy and Strategy (Resumed): Discussion

Mr. Mark Carlin:

We all accept that we need more trees and afforestation. Part of that is producing the timber we need. As we harvest our timber, for every tree we harvest we plant three new ones. What is wonderful about our industry is that there is also reforestation. What we harvest today, we replant immediately and it kicks off again. We have a real opportunity here. I think it would be wrong for us to give a message that we need to be careful with increasing the use of wood in the built environment because there could be some supply constraints. Let us drive up demand through the use of wood. We need to do that in our built environment. It is a fabulous product and we need to use more of it. I do not think there will be supply constraints in the short term.

Mr. Mark Carlin: We all accept that we need more trees and afforestation. Part of that is to produce the timber that we need. As we harvest our timber, for every tree we harvest, we plant three new ones. There is also reforestation. That is what is wonderful about our industry. What we harvest today we replant immediately and it kicks off again. There is real opportunity here. I think it would be wrong for us to give a message that we need to be careful with increasing the use of wood in the built environment because there could be some supply constraints. Let us drive up demand through the use of wood, because we need to do that in our built environment. It is a fabulous product and we need to use more of it. I do not think, in the short term, that there will be supply constraints.

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