Mr. Barry Delany:

Now we have the programme in place, trying to instil confidence into people to come through is foremost in our minds. We believe that the licensing process has improved. We want to show consistency in that, obviously, and that it is improved and is not a barrier to entry. Then it is about land availability and a farmer making an informed decision for making that land use change to plant forestry. When one considers mixed livestock farms especially, it does make sense to make that decision and that choice. It is interesting to see that applications are at about 85% currently for farmer applications. This shows that there is still an interest. Maybe it was pent up because it took a while to get to the programming being launched. It does show that.

With regard to engaging with Teagasc there are concerns around some of the environmental constraints but Teagasc engages with farmers and has said the level of contact it has had around the 1 ha scheme is unprecedented. It has not fully washed through in the numbers but one can apply through the 1 ha native tree scheme and have a response in two or three weeks for being able to plant on one's land. That is €22,000 and if there is a riparian area, that is an additional €22,000 over ten years. That may be an entry into afforestation. I live in the east coast and people are approaching me to tease that aspect out. This is not the panacea to the problem and obviously we want more planting as well of other types of forests.

We will not be shy in coming forward now. We have put out more than €1 million in terms of promotion projects to the sector and we will see those coming through regionally and locally. There is also our own campaign - it pays to plant trees. We also will become more targeted around pointing to planting forest type 12, which is the mixed commercial afforestation of broad leaves and so on. There is also huge interest in the agri-forestry aspect. This makes sense for sheep farmers and maybe even to poultry people to look at as well. One still gets to use the land in between which they can use for grazing. This appears to work very well for animal behaviour and husbandry.

I am trying to explain that there is positivity but, of course, there are constraints in terms of land and the challenge in the demands for land. However, the Deputy will see us positively promoting that as best we can.