Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept there was concern about the Gresham House deal. I engaged very closely on the matter with all parties and representatives, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Coillte at the time. It was important to contextualise what was agreed and the commitment Coillte signed up to over five years. It involves 700 ha of new afforestation a year for five years, which amounts to 1% of our national target overall. We have made clear that we want to support Coillte in the area of afforestation again. It has worked very well in afforestation in the past and is keen to contribute to it again. We want to explore how the State can support and work with it directly. We also want to see how Coillte can work directly with farmers to achieve that objective. I know Coillte is exploring that also and its representatives appeared before the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine yesterday to discuss that.

The Deputy is correct that we need a blend of trees. Conifers are a very commercial plant and deliver very strongly in respect of wood, which is very important in displacing fossil-based materials from construction. We need to grow conifer forest if we are to achieve this aim. One in four of all new builds nationally are timber-framed buildings, which is more than people think. There is significant potential to go further than that but we have to have the wood to do so.

We need to have a blend of native and broadleaf trees. We have placed a major emphasis on that in the new forestry programme. For example, the premiums for broadleaf trees are €1,100 per hectare per year. The premium is available to farmers for up to 20 years now compared with 15 years previously. If a farmer plants a hectare of broadleaf forestry on their land, that will be €22,000 per annum in premiums over the 20-year period, which is also tax-free. We very much want to incentivise that and I believe we will see significant uptake in interest in the programme because it makes sense for many farmers from an income point of view to do a little forestry on their farm. That can then contribute to emissions reduction and biodiversity.