Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Cairns for sharing her time. It is very much appreciated. I also thank the Minister and his officials for arranging to give a briefing to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine this morning. As has been said, these amendments came out of the blue for the committee. This morning's briefing was very beneficial to the members and we greatly appreciate it.

I welcome the amendments relating to small plantations on farms. I welcome that farmers will not need to go through a rigorous procedure when trying to get a licence to plant small areas their farm. It has a part to play in addressing climate change and reducing our emissions. However, we need to have a commercial forestry industry. The programme for Government has a target of 8,000 ha per annum. I plead with the Ministers to keep that target in place for commercial forestry. As it stands there is a requirement to have certain number of native trees in commercial forestry. However, without Sitka spruce we cannot have a commercial industry. We do not want to have to import timber in large quantities. We want to be able to keep our mills running for the production of timber and for our country. We have a tremendous ability to grow timber in this country. We can grow Sitka spruce more efficiently than any other country and we cannot lose sight of that. Whether it is to keep timber contractors in work or to keep the nurseries running, we need to have this 8,000 ha target for commercial forestry.

Whatever farm planting is done will be most welcome and will help in reducing emissions and meeting our climate targets. However, at the end of the day these will not be commercial ventures. No timber contractor will come along in 25 or 30 years to cut half a hectare or a hectare; it would not be viable to cut it commercially. Our forestry industry has great benefits for rural areas as an employer. It is an indigenous industry with much to offer. We have had a serious shortfall in afforestation in recent years and we are only meeting 25% of our targets in the programme for Government.

The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and Marine has had numerous meetings over the past 12 months. Some of the issues have been ironed out, but the level of afforestation remains exceptionally low. I do not want the afforestation of small plots of land by farmers to be used to camouflage the serious shortfall in commercial afforestation. This industry is a major employer in rural areas and has much to offer, especially in areas where the land quality is not up to the same standard as in other parts of the country.

While I welcome these amendments, which will allow farmers to plant small parcels of land without the hassle of applying for licences, I stress that our target of 8,000 ha for the commercial industry needs to be kept intact. We cannot use these figures for farmer afforestation to camouflage that.

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