Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As with everything else in our everyday lives, knowledge and research around the impact of anything we do on the environment has been constantly evolving. We will have a challenge over the next number of years in terms of emissions and the age profile of our national forests, given how there was significant afforestation in the 1980s and 1990s in particular.

As trees grow, particularly in the second half of their lifespan, they acquire and sequester carbon in a much faster way than when they are saplings. Some of our mature forests are being harvested now and they will be replanted. There is a legal obligation to replant but there is less sequestration from new saplings than from larger trees. In the past there was more forestry grown and planted in peatlands. The research and understanding around such work has changed significantly in terms of the potential to release carbon. As a result the new forestry programme has very different rules now in terms of where forests can be planted. In particular, it prevents them from being planted on peatland. On how we manage forests that are harvested that were previously on peatlands, we are continuing to research and work with the forest services and research agencies on how best to approach these sites.