Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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111. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the timeframe for the implementation of the Mackinnon report into the review of approval processes for afforestation in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23814/20]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I ask the Minister about afforestation and its importance, specifically with regard to the Mackinnon report that was published in 2019.

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

The Mackinnon report, which was carried out by Jim Mackinnon, the former chief planner of the Scottish Government, reviewed the forestry approval process and related issues in Ireland.  This was similar to an exercise which Mr. Mackinnon had previously conducted for the Scottish authorities. It was published at the end of last year and presented to the forestry programme implementation group in January.

Its implementation is one of the commitments which the Government made for forestry in the programme for Government.

The report was informed by, among other things, discussions with a range of stakeholders including the forestry sector, farming organisations, the environmental pillar, State bodies, Teagasc and the Forestry Appeals Committee. In addition, written submissions were received at the time.

The report includes 22 ways forward or recommendations across a range of issues. I am pleased to say that many of these recommendations have already been taken on board by my Department and acted upon. We are, for instance, in line with the Mackinnon report, introducing an amendment to the Agriculture Appeals Act and have issued guidance on Natura impact statements. We have also introduced a single consent system for forestry road planning

It is important that the report is implemented in the best way possible and that is why I am currently examining the appointment of an independent chair to oversee the process. The intention is that this person will report on the feasibility of implementing the Mackinnon recommendations for us to consider further. The newly commissioned forestry programme implementation group is to monitor progress and to help deliver on its ambition. A review of the forestry programme implementation group is currently under way to enhance representation in order that the membership of the group is best selected to help advise the Minister, myself and the Department on the implementation of the national programme.

There is a significant amount of activity in forestry at the moment especially on the reform of the planning and appeals processes and the introduction of the agriculture appeals (amendment) Bill to the House soon. Nonetheless, I am well aware that implementation of the Mackinnon report is also a priority and I expect to be making further announcements on this issue in the near future.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I wish the three Ministers, Deputies McConalogue and Heydon and Senator Hackett, the best of luck. It is a privilege to be a Minister. I was a Minister of State for nine years. It is very strange for me to be asking the questions now to a Minister of State after nine years. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State is in the process of appointing an independent chair. I would like to bring her back to November 2019 when one of the headlines in the Irish Farmers Journal was that the lack of political priority for the forestry sector was of major concern. I would like the Minister of State to be able to turn that headline around and say that the forestry sector has absolute political support. Having formerly worked in the forestry sector and whose college was related to the forestry sector, I have a great interest in it. I really believe that the Government can achieve a great deal more than has been achieved in the past. There are some decisions that the Minister of State and her Department can make which would make a very real difference. We are falling way behind in our planting targets. I have no doubt the Minister of State is well aware of that. As she is coming from the Green Party, which is very much the environmental party, I urge her support in this sector. It is really needed.

Senator Pippa Hackett:

I thank the Deputy for his kind words. The Mackinnon report did, indeed, highlight that lack of political priority for forestry. It is something of which I am very aware. We are missing our afforestation targets by a long way. The commitments in the programme for Government were highly ambitious for forestry, far more so than any previous programme. I am really looking forward to getting my forestry implementation group off the ground and starting the process of devising a new forestry programme for Ireland. It will be done with stakeholder engagement and as broad a base as we can achieve. We see the difficulty certain communities have with broad-scale single species afforestation. Those are some of the issues I wish to address. I look forward to engagement with politicians as well as stakeholders in devising that.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I worked in None-So-Hardy nurseries in County Wicklow. I ask the Minister of State if at all possible in her busy schedule to visit it. Nearly every Minister with responsibility for forestry has visited None-So-Hardy in Wicklow. They have a base in County Wexford as well. If we are to encourage farmers to enter into planting forestry, they have to see that as a seamless process. If they see a process that has delays with decisions from inspectors and so on, they will not be encouraged to go into forestry. I know quite a number of farmers in that position. None-So-Hardy nurseries have dumped millions of trees over the last years because of the lack of planting. They are committing to their side of it, sowing from seedlings and the whole way up but when it gets to planting and to the farmers, there is a serious delay. I ask for the undivided attention of the Minister of State on this specific issue. I ask her, on behalf of the management, to visit None-So-Hardy nurseries in Wicklow or Wexford.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I will let Deputy McNamara in briefly.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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I share Deputy Kehoe's concerns about delays but I am also glad to hear that the Minister of State is aware of some of the environmental difficulties. The answer is not to get rid of objections but to process them and deal with them quickly and to hire suitably qualified people in the Department to vet these applications. While forestry is extremely important, the type of forestry we are carrying out at the moment does little to benefit our environment. In fact, it is completely detrimental, particularly in the way monoculture is planted, clear-felled and replanted. I invite the Minister of State, before she comes to any final decision, to look at Slieve Aughty. Much of the land is designated as a special protection area, SPA, for hen harriers. Farmers are put to great lengths to protect the habitat for hen harriers and rightly so. They have no objection to that. However, Coillte then comes in, using pesticides for which it has received a derogation, and completely rapes the countryside.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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It is shameful that we have an agency in State ownership which does that. I ask the Minister of State to look at it.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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A good forestry policy, as I am sure the Minister of State will appreciate, should do three things. Obviously it should play a really important role in terms of protecting the environment and carbon emissions. It should also be of benefit to a local community. The forest is something that people should want to live close by to, as opposed to the current position whereby entire communities are rising up against some of the forestry policies. It should bring a benefit to the economy, particularly to the local economy. We have managed to develop a forestry policy in this State that does none of those three things, for reasons I have outlined. There are examples and we are beginning to see spreads of areas where this can be done well. Our forestry policy does not necessarily mean telling farmers they have to plant a certain percentage of their land with trees. They would find their worst land and would plant as many trees as they could on it. We should be encouraging them to have trees planted throughout the farm. The example of the Inishowen uplands project is of a standard that we should try to emulate across the State.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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There are over 500 applications currently at appeal stage. We have one individual who has to process each and every one of them. That backlog is leading to a situation where we do not have timber within the industry at present. Will the Minister of State unblock that blockage as an immediate action?

Senator Pippa Hackett:

Am I to answer all of these? I was not prepared for this, I am sorry. It was a rookie error, perhaps.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Minister of State can do her best. The questions were tabled in the name of Deputy Kehoe but the other Deputies are entitled to come in.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State should forget about the rest and only answer my question.

Senator Pippa Hackett:

I will do my best. I was scribbling down notes. In response to Deputy Kehoe, yes, I have a visit already in my diary for Friday to None-So-Hardy. I am glad we are all out of restriction now so I hope that will happen.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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That is great although I cannot take the credit for it.

Senator Pippa Hackett:

I am looking forward to that visit very much. I was aware of the destruction of many hundreds of thousands of young trees, which was an absolute travesty really. I hope that is not something we will see repeated. Nurseries need a significant run-in time and to see trees like that destroyed is a sad state of affairs.

On how forestry fits in with communities, I am very aware of that. Any new forestry programme will certainly need to listen to those communities. There is a lot to be learned. There is a legacy issue with a lot of forestry. Forestry is a long-term thing with trees planted many decades ago and now we are seeing the effects of that. Things have changed, however, even within the past couple of years. We plant things differently from how we used to. There are greater setback distances from roads, or there certainly should be.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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There should be but Coillte has its own-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Deputy, please.

Senator Pippa Hackett:

I will certainly take into account the comments made.

Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent)
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Perhaps the Minister of State would visit.

Senator Pippa Hackett:

A visit, indeed I would love that.