Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chance to speak on Irish forestry. It is of vital importance not just to rural TDs but also to urban TDs. It a vital part of our commitment to tackling climate change, to reversing the damage done to our ecosystem over decades and also vital for supporting local communities across rural Ireland and strengthening the local economy. When it comes to forestry in Ireland, the reality is clear; we have been massively failing year after year. The climate action plan suggests that upward of 8,000 ha. of land needs to be planted annually. The Government has set that as the annual afforestation target between 2019 and 2030 yet it is struggling to hit even a quarter of that target. With only 11% of forest areas across the State, we are massively below EU member states where the average is around 40%. We must begin a national conversation on what afforestation should consist of, how it will look and how it will impact and benefit the countryside. We need a clear plan to address the minuscule amount of native woodland across the State.

Dubliner Eoghan Daltun has been a strong voice on harnessing the vast potential to be harnessed across Ireland's west coast. In 2009, he bought a 27 acre partly-wooded farm on the Beara Peninsula, a beautiful part of the world. He described it as dying ecologically. Now, over a decade later, it is thriving. The ecological strength of his farm on the Beara Peninsula is in contrast to the nearby Killarney National Park. If you wander across the UNESCO biosphere of Killarney National Park you will find a barren landscape, stripped bare by Sika deer, goats, sheep and, of course, the invasive Rhododendron which provide little or no opportunity for the restoration of that ecosystem. We need to see an effective strategy to remove invasive species from the biosphere. What will be central to the success of the national forestry strategy will be community involvement and community buy-in. We need local communities to be the driving force in afforestation and not international investor funds, the sole modus operandi of which is profit and profit alone. We need to provide effective subsidies to farms which want to revive and plant native woodlands and effective subsidies to help farmers and local communities to tackle invasive species and the harm they do.

The proposed deal between Coillte and Gresham House has brought about widespread opposition. It has brought together sections of society from right across the State, urban and rural, which are opposed to this proposed deal. There is opposition to this deal from every section of Irish society: environmentalists, farmers, the forestry sector, rural and urban communities. The Government needs to engage and listen to these voices and expert knowledge and we need to make sure that the Gresham House deal can be undone. I strongly urge the Government to reverse the decision and to scrap the deal with Gresham House. I urge it to look after and support farmers and communities right across rural Ireland.

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