Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister and I certainly are in agreement on the principle here, which I am very glad to hear. However, we need to be more ambitious and to push this as far and as effectively as we can. The Programme of Competitive Forestry Research for Development, COFORD, estimates that to achieve our 17% forestry target by 2014, we need to be planting 15,000 ha per annum. We are still well short of that. Will the Minister expand on Coillte's change of strategy? To date, that body has failed quite spectacularly in its remit in this regard. EU rules around grants and so on have something to do with that, but the fact is Coillte has not contributed significantly to afforestation. The Minister might explain how this will change, because it needs to change.

Second, the Minister might consider a dedicated unit to explain to farmers the advantages of agroforestry and how it can contribute positively towards their farming.

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