Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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The original draft document came from working group 2 of Project Woodland. That was part of a process. There was a lot of engagement at that stage. The next stage of that process was engagement with further stakeholders and it ended up with engagement with the Commission. We had a very long and protracted engagement with the Commission to approve our forestry programme. The 65% the Deputy speaks of was always there. It was not a dilution. That was originally in the submission to the Commission, as far as I recall, so that did not change. The shift towards the 50-50 balance in our future afforestation plans simply came because of the necessity to rebalance what we have in Ireland.

At present we have 70% conifer and 30% broadleaf trees. The Commission impressed very strongly upon us that we need to try to get a little more balance. Hence, the requirement for more broadleaf planting. Farmers are keen to plant both types of forestry and that is welcome.