Results 101-120 of 755 for speaker:Pippa Hackett

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: It is strictly native trees. It is very much aimed at small-scale planting. I do not know if the Senator recalls the debates on this issue in the Seanad. A higher bar has to be passed because we are not putting it through the rigorous process of the licensing review. There will be certain areas of the country that will be told "No" straight away. Farmers and foresters will find that out...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I would like to think that a lot of this would not be clear-felled. It is going to be native woodland and will be there for many generations and decades to come.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: That is available in the details of the application process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: To be honest, it is hard to speculate. We just opened the new programme. It depends on what comes through that and what is sitting there and ready to plant. There are licences in the system at the moment. There is going to be quite positive engagement with the 1 ha scheme. Every hectare counts at this rate. Several thousand farmers choosing to plant 1 ha would mean several thousand...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I would like to think it would be more than that. I like to think it would be between 5,000 ha and 8,000 ha. The Senator might say I am speculating wildly but we have to aim high as we put the programme in place. We have had engagement with farmers on the ground. I have spoken with Teagasc and my own Department. At the National Ploughing Championships, there was a lot of interest. As I...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I do not have that figure but what I know is that we export 90% of what we produce. We are well in the field of being self-sufficient for our own. COFORD may have done some work and come up with some projections. I can check the figures. I do not think we have a problem; we will just end up using more here and not exporting more. We are well-serviced in the amount of timber that will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: Anything that is felled today gets replanted in the next number of months. The replanting keeps the constant supply at a certain level, so what is planted today will be there in 2050.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: We have put a lot of work into our systems over the last couple of years. We have forestry licence viewers and a lot of engagement. Mr. Delany might want to add more detail.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I thank Deputy Mythen. First, it was not the system that was at fault. The challenges that came about with the licensing came about because of EU challenges on how we were issuing licences. We had to completely and fundamentally change how we evaluated licences, hence the backlog came. The system at the time maybe did not deliver but we had to change that, and that was a massive challenge...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I thank Deputy Leddin. I thank him as well for his vote of confidence, which is much appreciated. He is right that in the programme for Government there is a commitment concerning small-scale native planting. He may have heard earlier about the small-scale forestry scheme launched today to support farmers to plant 1 ha of native woodlands. In fact, if they have any waterways, rivers or...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I think it is. Coillte plays a significant role in supplying timber to the sector. The supply of timber is approximately 50:50 between Coillte and private landowners. It will go up slightly on the private side. That balance will shift over the next few years. Coillte has an important role to play. It also has its processing facility, Medite Smartply, so it is involved in the whole...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: They already have that option.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I am saying they already have the option.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I believe that the new programme will be a success. It has been well thought through. Many people are supportive of it, including a lot of stakeholders and the Department. I have confidence in the programme.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I have not received it yet. I understand I will receive it in the coming weeks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: It will be published, yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: The target is 2,450 ha and more applications are coming in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: Absolutely. Officials have been working with people. We have had online engagement. We have face-to-face engagement with foresters next week. Our State agency through Teagasc will have 20 town hall-type events throughout the country for people to attend. There is plenty of engagement. We are pushing it out through promotion as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: I do not know the detail of that. Was it before the new state aid came in?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine: Ireland's Forestry Programme and Strategy: Discussion (4 Oct 2023)

Pippa Hackett: We have better processes now. They are more efficient and effective. We get a lot more information now upfront when an application comes, which we perhaps had not sought in previous times and would then have to go back. That is why we set those times. When they are not screened in for AA, that makes the situation much quicker as no ecologists are involved.