Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I have met with SEEFA and the IFA and am aware of their concerns. Both organisations, along with other stakeholders, sit on the afforestation working group which is teasing out some of the issues and looking for opportunities to take a slightly different approach while remaining within the confines of the regulations from the European Commission. I am not sure if the Deputy is condoning planting on special protection areas, SPAs, on deep peat or in pearl mussel areas. These are the areas that have been removed for absolutely genuine and proper reasons. We cannot reverse out of where we have moved to. We have seen the legacy issues in relation to forestry and we cannot go back to that. I am not sure whether the Deputy is proposing that we can plant anywhere we like. That is why the maps are there. They are there to guide and to protect our nature but there are vast swaths of the country that are not on those maps. There are vast swaths of the country that can be planted with trees.

We put together a large funding package for farmers throughout the country in order to allow them to engage in that. There are so many options available. I encourage any farmer who is in any way remotely interested in planting trees to look at the money on offer.

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