Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My previous question was around the environmental and climate targets and the performance on those, and how that is reflected in performance reviews, including KPI for senior public servants.

To focus specifically on Coillte, it does not have a mixed mandate right now; it has a solely commercial and indeed cash-generative mandate. It is excluded from the public sector climate action mandate, so that does not apply. It has a solely commercial mandate. What is being proposed, and widely supported by many across civil society, is that it would be economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. That has an economic element there too. That is an actual mixed mandate. The reason we need to look at a new mandate is that whatever reinvestment there may be, when it comes to climate, right now forestry is one of the major areas where the State is failing. The Department of agriculture found that from 2015 to 2017, Ireland's forest estate went from being a carbon sink to being a net-emitter. We moved forestry to a net-emitter, which is pretty shameful.

The Minister mentioned the need for big decisions and the idea of a trough because while the implications may drip slow, this is a major moment of opportunity cost. If we need to do something that delivers 7% of the State land, that could be a big deal and it could help us. However, if we do not have action on that, it is going to have an impact. Again, land use-----