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Our new forest strategy to 2030 will be published shortly. It has been informed by extensive engagement with the public and with stakeholders and has climate, nature, people, wood and economy as its five core values. We will implement this strategy in the immediate term by way of the forestry programme.

Under the new forestry programme, farmers will receive 20 years of premium payments, compared with 15 years of premium payments for non-farmers. Furthermore, in addition to receiving 33% more premium payments, farmers who plant new forests will receive the single farm payment on land converted to forestry, whereas other private landowners will not receive that payment.

There has been some discussion today based on media reports on the level of environmental ambition under the new programme. There is a certain amount of muddying of waters between what went on in the mid-1990s compared to what we are doing in forestry now and into the future. What we are doing in forestry under this new programme is delivering for biodiversity, water quality and carbon sequestration in a way that no Irish forestry programme has done before. For example, under the new programme we are not planting on unenclosed areas. On those peaty upland areas, in some years during the 1990s we did almost 40% of our afforestation. In special protection areas for hen harriers, afforestation has not been permitted since 2013. As for annex 1 habitats, planting in these areas is expressly prohibited.

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