Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 4 May 2023

Public Accounts Committee

Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine - 2021 Financial Statements
Fishery Harbour Centres

9:30 am

Mr. Brendan Gleeson:

Okay. Forestry plays a role in that because it provides a potential alternative income for livestock farmers. That is the first thing. The second thing is that we have emissions from land use. Our net emissions from land use in 2018 were about 4.8 megatonnes. We have not set a target for reducing emissions from land use yet because it is complicated and the science is evolving and changing. Forestry is one of the measures that can be used to reduce emissions from land use. It is true to say that if we do not succeed in meeting our forestry targets, it will have an impact on our ability to meet our land use emissions reduction targets when they emerge.