Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Forestry and Climate Change: Discussion

Photo of Seán SherlockSeán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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We need actions to follow the statements that are made here. If there was a clear offer on the part of IBEC, Forest Industries Ireland, FII, or the relevant NGOs to start this process with some sort of summit on the future, that would be a very good result. I would welcome that.

The second issue concerns the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and the multi-annual financial framework. I do not know what stage it has reached or where forestry sits in that. Farmers are arguably farming to schemes. We recognise that from a social and cultural point of view it is very difficult for farmers to give up farming livestock if they have been doing so for three or four generations and switch to afforestation. I take the point made by the two doctors about the proportion of a given holding that is given over to forestry. Is there scope within the next round of CAP and the next multi-annual financial framework to have clear schemes and financial packages to incentivise climate action among farmers on this island? That could include afforestation or biodiversity measures. Is it the understanding of Mr. Moore or Mr. Hayes that the CAP is moving in the direction of incentivising climate action on the part of farmers and landowners?