Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Senator Pippa Hackett):

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Forestry is the largest tool in our armour to achieve climate action and sequestration. We know it is essential. Our new forest strategy is all about planting the right trees in the right places, under the right management and for the right purpose. This applies across the board, regardless of whether the planting is for timber, the local economy, amenity value, biodiversity or water quality. With that in mind, we have come up with an innovative forestry programme to encourage farmers. Ultimately, we will be largely reliant on our farmers to plant the trees of the future. We have adjusted old programmes, put in place new measures and are considering more supports for practices such as agroforestry, which allows farmers to grow crops or have animals graze between planted trees. This will be a really attractive option for farmers here. The practice is fairly widespread in other countries but not so much here.

We have changed legislation to allow farmers to plant up to a hectare of native woodland on their farms without the need for a licence. Again, this is another mechanism by which we recognise the importance of tree-planting and some of the difficulties around licensing. It is an acknowledgment of the need that we absolutely have to increase our afforestation targets. We have been off target, as we all acknowledge and have known for several years, and it is really time to turn that around. I really hope the new forestry programme will help in that matter.

See this speech in context