Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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I thank our witnesses for their enlightening contributions thus far. On afforestation, the biggest issue we have, notwithstanding the latest iteration of the afforestation plan, is that we have not hit or come close to hitting a target since 2016. Since then, our targets have increased significantly but our actual afforestation rate has dropped to below 20% of target, to the best of my knowledge. We have touched on swapping land use, as Professor Joosten called it, in terms of what we can achieve with this latest iteration of the afforestation plan. The key question for everybody in the committee is whether it is achievable. With Dr. Byrne’s expertise, what are the knock-on implications if we do not achieve those targets as quickly as possible? While any improvement is welcome, as he said, these targets are being set as high as they are for a purpose and with a good reason. I am not seeing any evidence that the afforestation rate will get above the current level of 2,000 ha.