Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make a couple of points before finishing up. Mr. Gleeson hit the nail on the head when he talked about the length of the premiums. Farmers are making decisions and are probably thinking of the next generation coming after them. We talked about native planting and native forests. While the figure looks attractive, the reality is after 20 years, they are going to be waiting an awful long time for any other payday. Until we address that issue, that there will be a long-term payment strategy for land, farmers are not going to make the decision to afforest. We are trying to afforest better-quality land at the moment due to various restrictions. As for the attractiveness of leasing land over a period of five, ten or 15 years, anyone who sits down and does his or her sums is taking that option, rather than looking at afforestation. While there are premiums worth €176,000 over 20 years, if you equate getting €250 an acre for land on leasing and you are getting the money tax free and you are not making a life- changing decision with the land, that is one of the principal reasons there is no decision to be made as to whether to afforest at the moment.

I spoke at a forestry seminar in the RDS on Thursday and I brought up the blanket ban on afforestation in designated areas, unenclosed land and peatland. That needs to be looked at. A lot of environmental people are coming around to the view that a blanket ban is not helping to create the intended habitats. There were figures at that conference surrounding the hen harrier population. I talk about the hen harrier because there is a lot of land in my own county designated because of the hen harrier. Where there is a blanket ban at the moment, the hen harrier population is dropping. In another part, in the Slieve Felim mountains where the hen harrier is to be found as well and where there is plenty of forestation, the hen harrier population is actually increasing. If we are to get availability of forestry land, we have to look at these blanket bans and see whether they are achieving what we set to achieve with them. If we could dilute the blanket ban, would we make more land available for planting? That needs to be looked at. As I said, it is not just landowners who are saying this now. A lot of environmentalists are coming around to that view as well. Those two things need to be seriously looked at, namely, income post the 20 year period and that blanket ban.

As the competition for better-quality arable land is so intense at the moment, it is going to be well-nigh impossible for forestry to compete. We have seen the price of land rising dramatically in the past 12 to 18 months and that is making the purchase of land for forestry virtually uneconomical. We all want to see Ireland meeting our targets and, as Mr. Gleeson made the point, we are trying to reach equilibrium for emissions. We cannot do it without forestry.

We have to think outside the box. Carbon credits might be a way of doing it going forward but farmers will want to see that in black and white before they make a decision to afforest. I also urge the Department to look at the blanket ban in place. It has taken an awful lot of land out of the equation. I am not saying that in the morning you would plant 100% of designated land but perhaps over a period, every five years, a percentage could be planted to give different stages of afforestation growth in those areas. There is growing evidence to show that will benefit habitats, rather than hinder them. Those are a few points I would like to make. We have had a long session this evening.