Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There were a number of questions there. Deputies Kelly and Cahill raised the issue of afforestation and issues with the licensing of forestry operations because of changes to the appropriate assessment procedure, due to European Court of Justice and Irish law rulings relating to environmental regulation. We are addressing these issues robustly. I am not happy with the low level of planting over the last decade. It is not where we should have been and we are not where we should be today. In the context of what Deputy Boyd Barrett said, I think we do need commercial forestries but, in parallel with that, we also need native woodlands to be planted and policies and incentives that would facilitate the growth of native woodland. Those policies need to be developed and will be developed. I am very taken by Deputy Cahill's point about the environmental schemes, such as the new Pillar 2 environmental scheme, and that we would look at the aspect of forestry in that context. Obviously it will have to be sustainable and in the context of an environmental scheme. We have to move much more comprehensively, faster and more flexibly on the growing of trees in this country than we currently are doing. That is the bottom line.

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