Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

-----in order that we can plant native trees.

Deputy O’Connor stated he was here to represent and push for the commercial sector and I admit that small areas are not necessarily going to be commercial. They can, however, be accounted for in our carbon inventory and are good for biodiversity, water quality and so forth. That is important.

Deputy Boyd Barrett highlighted quite clearly the benefits of trees, as did Deputy Cairns.

As to the nurseries I have met their representatives and the single biggest thing we can do for the nursery sector is to get the licensing process fixed and to encourage afforestation. I certainly would like to think that a smaller-scale planting model might also help with the nurseries.

I talk to farmers every day, and I know and accept the frustrations out there. I take phone calls most days about licences and I am probably writing and signing endless letters for people. Some people's cases get resolved, while others do not. Deputy Cairns asked for specific details. I do not have them, but the average time for a licence is 11 months. It is still too long, but in terms of the certainty that farmers need, we are working on bringing that time down.

We have to instill confidence in farmers to plant trees. That is why I worry about the narrative out there and the negativity associated with forestry. It is hard enough to even think about planting trees, even back in the good old days. In this country, forestry was considered a move away from farming and people were not seen as farmers if they were planting trees. It was thought that they had abandoned their land. That cultural aspect is still lingering at the backs of people's minds and we have to get rid of it. In the past number of months I spoke with the ambassador to Finland and the Finnish Minister for agriculture. People are not farmers in Finland unless they have trees. It is the total opposite of the attitude here. Collectively, we need to encourage our farmers to get involved in tree planting and support that. The Government obviously has a significant role to play in supporting that.

With regard to this being incorporated into CAP, there are tree planting measures in the next policy's strategic plan. It is not afforestation under a strict definition, but we must remember that the CAP strategic plan lasts for five years and we support afforestation from Exchequer funds for much longer periods. I wonder how we could incorporate that balance. By all means, afforested land is still eligible for BPS and that is a good thing. I do not know whether we could incorporate that into a CAP plan for such a short-term period. We do not know what will lie ahead for the next round of CAP.

Everything is being taken incredibly seriously by me and my officials in the Department. If we could all click our fingers, wave a magic wand and fix this, we certainly would. I do not believe that there are any silver bullet quick fixes. We are examining every opportunity and exploring every possibility of streamlining the process to make it simpler. We are obliged under EU and national laws to do things properly. We must not forget why we are in this situation now compared to three years ago, and what has happened in between. We have to navigate our way out of this in the best way.

I have confidence in Project Woodland. The people in my forestry policy group have been dedicated over the past year. This is challenging and I know they are frustrated. Some of them are very frustrated, but they are working together. If people were to drop off, it would be a sad state of affairs. Maybe people in opposition think it would be great to see the project fail, but I do not think it would be a good thing. I want it to succeed. I believe people are working well together and it will succeed. I look forward to the day when we have a smooth functioning forestry licensing system, hit our afforestation targets for once and meet some climate change and climate action goals.

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