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Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

...the views of the members of the committee on the key stakeholders with an interest in our work. When I was assessing this position, I was conscious of the critical role Coillte has to play in Ireland achieving its climate action targets. With each year that passes, just how challenging these targets are is becoming increasingly apparent, with the urgent need to make more progress. In...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Paul Daly: ...many hearings and meetings here. I would like to hear from Ms Jupp how she thinks Coillte can help us to reach the target, which is 8,000 ha. I know Coillte has approximately 7% of the national land bank, so it is probably restricted in that it can only sow what it owns. How can Coillte play a role in the overall forestry sector to try to get things back on track and help us to achieve...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

...are generally of a very long-term nature, as the Deputy can imagine – probably 40 years. In return for planting the trees and managing the forest, we get part ownership of the trees grown on the land. The vast majority of the partnerships are working well. I am aware that in a small number of cases, farm partners have raised issues, such as engagement with Coillte and the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Ms Vivienne Jupp: I am afraid I would need further information from Coillte to answer that. I will ask it to reassess it. Our plan for forestry is to increase the percentage of land used for forestry from about 11% to 18%, which is the target for 2050. In meeting that target, Coillte hopes to do 100,000 ha, which will mean it will have to acquire new land. This involves a very expensive...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Ms Vivienne Jupp: Generally, the amount of land we have in forestry is much more limited than that of other countries throughout Europe. Ireland is a small country and the other small countries rank low with regard to the amount of forested land. The climate issue has brought a focus on the need for investment in forests and for more forests. Coillte hopes to enable some of this through...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Claire Kerrane: ...lot of work and, despite its cross-party membership, it is very much concerned as a unit about the forestry programme as it stands. I am just back from attending a briefing by Forest Industries Ireland, at which Coillte was represented. At every meeting I held with people from every part of the forestry sector, alarm bells were raised about the programme and the number of restrictions and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

...wood will be available. When we cut down wood, we generally plant three trees for each one that has been harvested. As those trees grow, they are great eaters of carbon dioxide. The more land there is and the more trees we can plant, the more it will help with that. Our broad climate targets, as I said, are very challenging. We will do our part in trying to ensure we can deliver as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Johnny Mythen: I wish Ms Jupp all the best. She has a daunting task. There is a lot of difficulty in forestry at present. Coillte has 4,450 sq. km of land, which is probably 50% of the land in the country. It is a serious investment for our country and for the benefit of our country. The most important issue at the moment is housing, as Ms Jupp is aware. We will require an awful lot of timber to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Johnny Mythen: How much land will be involved in increasing the area of Coillte's land used for biodiversity from 20% to 30% by 2025, which is a very short period? Has Coillte been approached by wind farm companies to take up particular forestry areas? What is its position on that? We have talked to some farmers. They are very concerned about the 20-year rule, if they want to change back but cannot....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Johnny Mythen: When a farmer dedicates his farm to forestry, he is designated as a forester. However, young farmers who are about take over or inherit land might not want to take over the forestry end of it. What is Coillte's position on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Ms Vivienne Jupp: We definitely need timber for housing. From the 400,000 ha we have, we produce a volume of timber; I just cannot recall the number. We hope to increase that land by a quarter. That will give us a quarter extra in timber. I am not sure whether that will produce the number of houses we are targeting, but it is to be hoped the analysis has been done to assess whether that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

...Jupp: What was targeted was 8,000 ha but only 1,500 ha will be done. I will have to take that one away. I am unaware of that at the moment. Our plan for biodiversity is to put some more land into biodiversity areas and plant some native trees there, which take much longer to grow. It may not necessarily be the kind of wood the construction industry wants. It generally wants soft...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Jackie Cahill: I would like a bit of give and take and efforts to sort out those issues. I have dealt with Coillte on a number of issues such as right of way or land swaps. I find the staff to be very co-operative and willing to help. There was a very large project in the north of my county where a significant volume of timber was landlocked and we got an agreement to get access to it. The process of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Ms Vivienne Jupp: It is a challenge. One of the things where it is looking to change the use of the land involves some of the peatlands. One of the areas they are targeting for biodiversity involves some of the peatlands. These areas were planted with trees donkeys years ago, which we now know was not the right thing to do with some of those peatlands, so we are looking at all of those....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: ...private and public side. You cannot have the ESB constantly having to fix wires because of that. This is one thing I would ask Ms Jupp to take up in her role. The second issue is pressure on land. Coillte are using investment funds when it comes to buying up land. It is behind the door. The investment fund is buying it, it will come into its ownership after while and farmers are in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Ms Vivienne Jupp: I will raise that when I get in to talk to the Department and the board. There is pressure on land because the goal is to increase forestry quite dramatically. Coillte cannot do that on its own. There have to be other avenues that will increase tree planting, whether we want it for wood for construction, climate and biodiversity or recreation. All those will have to be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

.... I have covered the issue of farm partnerships but I will reiterate it for the Deputy because he was not here. We have had a series of historical arrangements with farmers where we plant the land and, in return-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

...the Derryclare issue recently. It is a big disappointment to us and we will have to take a look at what we can do with it. As I understand it, the foresters did a great deal of analysis of the land and, based on science and the nature of the land that was covered, produced a plan to identify what they could do with the various pieces, which was not the same for the entire Derryclare...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Michael Fitzmaurice: There is one issue I forgot to mention, regarding the flow of water. Where land is planted, there might be a drain or a river running through it that takes water from the land beside it, but those drains have not been maintained by Coillte over the years. That means there is a backlog because, obviously, where trees are growing, there will be scrub and weeds and grass will be growing. In...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Coillte CGA: Chairperson Designate (17 Apr 2024)

Ms Vivienne Jupp: I agree. We should have a collaborative arrangement with farmers, the local communities and any of the stakeholders around our land. In particular, when we came up with the new forestry strategy, we engaged with a lot of people and the general public when we were doing that.