Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this opportunity to address the House on Ireland's forestry strategy and other forestry matters. I emphasise again the importance of the forestry sector to the Irish economy and the important role of forestry in the delivery of our targets under the climate action plan. I am heartened by the cross-party support for forestry and for improving our afforestation rates in the country. Almost every Deputy in the House has spoken about our need to increase afforestation rates for the benefit of farmers, rural communities and our climate.

For various reasons, forestry planting has not been or is not where we want it to be. Afforestation rates have not reached their heyday of the late 1990s and early 2000s for a raft of reasons. We have very ambitious climate targets, with forestry planting being at the very centre of these ambitions. As we face into a decade where we will need to reach up to 8,000 ha of forestry planting each year, our new €1.3 billion forestry programme will be a real game changer as we face into this challenge. We have 11.6% of the country under forestry at the moment with a target of reaching 18% by 2050. The challenge is great but our ambition is higher. This is an ambition with farmers at the very centre of it. This is why the programme for Government has committed €1.3 billion to this new forestry programme with substantially higher payments for farmers.

Putting it plainly, farmers will receive premiums for 20 years in the new forestry programme, which are up 66% on those of the previous scheme. This is the biggest and largest forestry programme ever introduced by any Government here and has been designed to have an emphasis on close-to-nature forestry and to ensure that farmers will be its primary beneficiaries. Comprehensive public consultation has taken place over the past year on the development of a national forestry strategy which has resulted in the publication of a shared national vision for the role of trees and forests in Ireland to 2050, together with the new draft strategy which sets out a clear set of objectives for the role of trees and forests in Ireland between now and 2030. The new Forestry Programme 2023-2027 will be the primary means by which the new strategy will be implemented over the next five years.

As I said, this comprehensive package of measures included a programme which will see an increase in forestry premiums between 46% and 66%, with farmers receiving 20 years of premiums compared to 15 years of premiums payments for non-farmers. In addition to receiving 33% more premium payments, farmers who plant new forests will receive the single farm payment on land converted to forestry. Other private landowners will not receive that payment.

The new forestry programme will also include a small-scale native woodland scheme whereby farmers will be paid to plant mixed native broadleaf forests of up to 1 ha in size on farms and along water courses, without the need for a forestry licence. This is another clear incentive to our farmers to consider planting their land.

The Forestry Programme 2023-2027 is subject to state aid approval from the EU Commission. The previous state aid guidelines in the forestry sector expired on 31 December 2022 and have now been replaced with a revised version as of January 2023. The introduction of these revised guidelines meant that a formal application for state aid could not have been submitted to the European Commission until the revised guidelines were in place, that is, before this month. We are continuing to engage with the European Commission to get this state aid approval process completed as fast as possible and we are leaving no stone unturned in that regard. We do not have a day to waste and we are working proactively to get the work completed in order to get the new programme officially open.

In the meantime, farmers can still engage with their planners to have much of the preparatory work done so that they can then officially submit their application once approval is received. I need to be clear that the precise timing of state aid approval will be a matter for the European Commission. We are, however, working daily with the Commission to get this process completed as quickly as possible.

On licensing, we have climbed a mountain to improve a situation that was truly dire. When the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I came to office, the forestry sector was on life support. Confidence had been eroded, licences were backed up and afforestation rates had collapsed. A broken appeal system had ground licensing to a halt with 6,000 licences awaiting over 120 days for approval. That number has reduced by nearly 5,000 now.

The backlog came as result of a 2017 court ruling which required significantly more scrutiny on each application, which delayed every single application. The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I, working closely with our Department officials, set about fixing that problem but with it being so deep-rooted, it took time. Working with our officials, we identified the problem and we have fixed it through investment, hard work and determination.

To emphasise how efficient the licensing system has now become, in 2022 the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine issued 4,713 licences, which was 1,154 more licences issued than applications received. Licences on hand with us for more than 120 days reduced from 3,700 applications in January of the year past, to 1,983 at the end of the year. The 6,000 to 7,000 licences we had on hand in total in August 2021 is now at just over 3,000 and continues to reduce every single week, even when new licence applications are factored in. Licences for timber felling and forest roads were both at record levels for a single year in the year just past.

There are now over 1,000 approved afforestation contracts with 7,343 ha approved as ready for planting. In addition, there was over 9.5 million cu. m of wood licensed, well beyond the National Council for Forest Research and Development, COFORD, estimated demand.

We have seen real progress but we have more to do. We will continue to push and drive on to become even more efficient.

While the new forestry strategy and programme are not finalised yet, the Department has introduced an interim afforestation and roads scheme in order that those with valid approvals under the old forestry programme can plant and build roads. Under the previous programme, licences were issued for more than 7,000 ha of afforestation that have not yet proceeded to planting stage. Under the interim arrangements that have been put in place pending approval of the new programme, those with existing licences can now proceed for planting at the new rates proposed to be paid under the new programme and have the full benefit of those new rates. We have received significant numbers of applications to proceed with planting in the coming weeks and months under these arrangements. We are committed to keeping this critically important industry moving through this relatively short period of uncertainty. Felling and non-grant aided roads licences will continue to issue and the Department's significantly enhanced licensing system will continue to progress existing afforestation applications pending state aid approval.

Under the new programme, farmers, as the biggest landowners in the country, will have the opportunity to play the most significant role in the creation of new forests. We hope that they will take advantage of the generous incentives on offer to help drive increasing afforestation. The afforestation targets set out in the forestry programme and the climate action plan are ambitious and will require the input of all stakeholders. The Government asked Coillte to get back into afforestation in order to help meet the country's ambitious forestry targets. The independent semi-State company, through its strategic vision, which was launched in early 2022, set a target of 100,000 ha of afforestation by 2050. However, the company is precluded from directly receiving premiums following a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and it simply cannot draw down premiums itself. Coillte has, therefore, been exploring all options to support the creation of new forests in Ireland. This includes, through the harnessing of funding and assets from private and public sources, afforestation grants and premiums to provide long-term social returns for all stakeholders.

I am acutely aware of the concerns that have been expressed regarding Coillte's involvement with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, and Gresham House. Coillte has partnered with ISIF to establish the Irish Strategic Forestry Fund as one of a number of models it intends to deploy in order to enable afforestation on a meaningful scale. As the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine last night, and as we say again, the structure of the deal between Coillte, ISIF and Gresham House is not our preferred option. Our preferred option is for farmers to plant forest on their own land. That is what we have designed the new forestry programme to achieve. However, this fund is an option Coillte has put in place to help us reach our highly ambitious forestry targets.

The total area of new forest planted through the fund will deliver approximately 3.5% of the 100,000 ha of new forest Coillte has committed to enabling between now and 2050. Of the State's overall national target of 450,000 ha of new forest by 2050, the fund will plant less than 1% of that total. Coillte will not sell any existing, publicly owned forest to the fund, nor will it seek to purchase any other public land on behalf of the fund. Any land purchased by the fund will already be in private ownership and, obviously, no private landowner will be forced to sell land to the fund. Coillte and ISIF have entered into binding, contractual relationships in respect of this initiative, which has commenced its work, the afforestation element of which is expected to last for five years.

Building afforestation momentum in a sector that has been stagnant is necessary but there are various options to reach our ambitions. This is why the Minister of State, Senator Hackett, and I have asked Coillte to closely examine how it can work more closely with the State, as well as farmers and local communities. Again, this type of strategy is not our preferred option for strategic partnerships in the sector. Our preferred option is for farmers to plant trees on their own land, which is what we are incentivising through the new €1.3 billion forestry programme. We want all strategies to be based around working in partnership with farmers to support their ambitions for forestry but we must also be realistic. For various reasons, forestry plantations are not where we want them to be. Afforestation rates have not reached their heyday of the late 1990s and early 2000s, for many reasons. We have highly ambitious climate targets with forestry planting at the very centre of these ambitions.

Our main focus now is on securing EU state aid approval in order to introduce the new programme as quickly as possible. This is a €1.3 billion forestry programme that is focused on the future and not on the past, and on driving economic activity in rural communities throughout the country. This programme puts our farm families at the centre of its record premiums and a 20-year tax-free income. We have much more work to do to change the perception around forestry. Increasing our afforestation rates will be good for the environment, for our climate targets and, critically, for family farm incomes. We are entering and facing into an exciting future for forestry. We all look forward to working together to seeing Ireland become a leader in the forestry sector.

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